Dissolving: the future behind a veil

The 11 year old Sâliha Sultana, daughter of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876) and of the Georgian Dürrünev Kadın Efendi, on her visit card made by the Abdullah Brothers in 1873.


The 15 year old Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière, daughter of Philibert Rivière, a court official under Napoleon’s empire, on her portrait made by Ingres in 1806.


The two images, far from each other in time and place, are linked by the serious gaze of the girls and their identification with their adult role.

Sâliha lived eighty years. Caroline was dead in the year after the painting of the portrait.