THE AMERICAN PAINTER WALTER GOULD'S TRIP TO TURKEY IN 1851: VISIT TO LAJOS KOSSUTH AND REFLECTIONS IN ART

Abstract

Painter Walter Gould was one of the first American orientalist painters to live in the 19th century and to travel to Turkey in 1851. Although he remained in the country for only two months, he based his entire career on this trip. Although it is stated that Gould came to paint portraits of Hungarian nationalist Lajos Kossuth, who took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and hid in the K & uuml;tahya province, it is clear that his trip also served other purposes. This article focuses on Gould's mission in Turkey and his works, as well as the days in K & uuml;tahya where Kossuth, a Hungarian freedom fighter, came and lived with his retinue. In particular, the diaries of Kossuth's secretary, as well as the press coverage of the period, the artist's letters and reflections on his art, constituted important data sources for the article. In this study, while revealing the historical process in which the painter Walter Gould, who became famous for his works on the east, was involved, it was explained how Hungary's place of freedom and how this process shaped his art.