Watercolour

A few years later, in 1881, an amateur painter, Colonel Benjamin Donisthorpe Alsop Donne, paint­ed two watercolours presenting ‘A Greek Peasant on the Limassol Works’ and ‘A Turkish Cypriot Worker’, respectively, as if he wanted to urge us to compare the appearance of the two. Both wear their traditional cos­tume, each part of which is accurate­ly depicted: the Greek (shown from the front) wears a black waistcoat crossed over the chest and with two oblique rows of buttons, over a white shirt, black baggy trou­sers (vráka), which meet the black top boots under the knee, a crimson broad sash at the waist and a crimson fez with a striped headscarf round it.

The tall house with the tiled roof and the flag belonged to Richard Mattei, who owned a prosperous farm in Dali village and had invented a system for extermonating locust. he was a Cypriot - Italian landowner and member of Garnet Wolseley's first Legislative Counsil. The lonf row of buildings includes a number of arches, kiosks and balconies under flat and sloping tiled roofs. Figures working on the pier and men struggling in a boat add life to the picture. Ellis's own attitudes are reflected in his interior of a traditional Cypriot's Home. The servants, Greek figures, subservient and awkward, attend to the animals. The artist, dressed in white and wearing a pith helmet (an insignia of the ruling class), ascends the stairs to the upper quarters. (page 178 fig 208)

Watercolour painting At the Marina, Larnaca, 1878, (that part around the port was better known as Scala, and the rest of the town was about half to one mile away) gives the impression of a Near Eastern port. This could be any small harbour in Asia Minor, Egypt or Syria. What is interesting, and what renders it an oriental picture, is the carefully chosen detailing, that has been included and what omitted. the costumes are Ottoman and exotic, which presented only half the truth. There is no doubt that such costumes were seen all over Cyprus and in countryside for many years to come, but by the end of the nineteenth century Larnaca was Europeanised to the degree that at least part of its population appeared in European clothes. There are no women on the seafront, even if it appears to be busy market day. The only woman to be seen is seated at her window high above the road, at safe distance for men. she is wearing the white robes of the Moslem tradition, even though her face uncovered and she is seated by wide open window - pointing it the relaxation of the Islamic rules even on women attire. (severis 2000 page 176 fig 206)

The character on the right named by the painter Donisthorpe Donne as Ibrahim Mustafa is in the company of a black man with the same rank (denoted by the insignia on their sleeves)

A Turkish Cypriot Worker is wearing white pantaloons (vraka), a blue and white striped shirt and a multicoloured sash or belt.

A few years later, in 1881, an amateur painter, Colonel Benjamin Donisthorpe Alsop Donne, paint­ed two watercolours presenting ‘A Greek Peasant on the Limassol Works’ and ‘A Turkish Cypriot Worker’, respectively, as if he wanted to urge us to compare the appearance of the two. Both wear their traditional cos­tume, each part of which is accurate­ly depicted: the Greek (shown from the front) wears a black waistcoat crossed over the chest and with two oblique rows of buttons, over a white shirt, black baggy trou­sers (vráka), which meet the black top boots under the knee, a crimson broad sash at the waist and a crimson fez with a striped headscarf round it.

The watercolor depicts ‘George Savas chypri­ote colonel au service Grec’. He is represented in a half-length likeness and as a military officer, he wears an uniform and bears two pistols and a sword around his waist. The richly decorated waistcoat with shoulder flaps resembles the waistcoat called férmeli or férmeni (Turk. fermene), which was worn by Greeks, especially the fighters in the Greek War of Independence, but was also known in Cyprus (see above condemnation of this garment by the Church in 1797). On his head he wears a cap.

The drawing (R.F.7544) is a costume study with notes on the colours writ­ten by the artist. It includes a fully dressed male figure in the middle (number 1) seen from the back, and another four drawings, two of them depicting the back of the upper part and two (numbers 2 and 3) the lower part of a dressed body. The man in the middle is smoking a long pipe. His costume comprises a sarık wound around a cap or fez, a richly decorated (braided) short waistcoat with shoulder flaps hanging over the sleeves of the shirt, and knee-long baggy trousers with folds. He appears also to have a sash around the waist. The calves seem to be covered with gaiters reaching down to the ankles. Flat shoes complete the costume. The back of the waistcoat is decorated with a figure-of-eight shaped pattern; only the central parts are painted red, and the other different colours are written and pointed out with lines: ‘jaune bordé du rouge’ (yellow bordered with red), ‘Capucin’ (light brown, the colour of the robe of the Capuchins) and ‘bleu de Ciel’ (sky-blue). The back of the waistcoat is shown again twice to the right of the figure, with slight differences (dark-coloured / light-coloured). In the upper draw­ing the figure-of-eight and the borders are painted light blue and the rest red. Only the blue (‘bleu de ciel’) is noted in connection with the pattern of the upper drawing. The drawing number 2, at the bottom left, is similar to the lower part of the dress of the main figure; here is noted the colour of the gaiters: ‘blanc jaune’ (whitish yellow). The last drawing (number 3) presents the lower part of a body in long pantaloons, most probably şalvar, which seem to be tied round the ankles. Along the side they are deco­rated with a curvilinear pattern. This drawing is accompanied with a note: ‘gros Drap blanc jaunatre. Dessins noir ou bleu de Ciel.’ The black or sky-blue colour refers to the curvilinear decorative pattern applied on the thick white-yellowish fabric of the panta­loons. The drawing number 3 might also be related to the drawing of the back of the waistcoat above it, which ends with a sarık seen from the back. The note ‘ou rouge’ on top left of the page does not seem to have any connection to the drawings below. The richly decorated waistcoat with shoulder flaps resembles the waistcoat called férmeli or férmeni (Turk. fermene), which was worn by Greeks, especially the fighters in the Greek War of Independence, but was also known in Cyprus (see above condemnation of this garment by the Church in 1797).

The drawing (R.F.7538) presents a Turk with moustache, who stands reluctantly with his hands behind his back. The nationality is indicated by the voluminous white sarık and the white baggy trousers, which are tied below the knee; short parallel lines probably indicate strings or fringes(?). A wide sash or belt (kuşak or kemer) is wound around the waist; this belt was used as a receptacle to keep several accessories and weap­ons; the decorated hilt of a knife protrudes from the belt in the middle. Over the shirt the man wears a waistcoat with decorative edging and a pocket on its right side. The waist­coat is red, as are also the wide sash around the waist and the flat shoes, probably made locally of Morocco-type leather. The legs are bare and light brown (sun-tanned) like the face. A drawing of the waistcoat in outline appears on the right side of the page, with a note above it, on the top of the page: ‘il ny a pas de poche au coté gauche’ (there is no pocket on the left side). The word ‘Chypre’ is written below the figure on the bottom left. Taking into consideration the scarcity of visual evidence, this detailed drawing offers a good idea of the appearance of the ‘Turks of Cyprus’, as they were called, at a time from which no actual garments have survived.