Princely Playboy in Crimea

This gallery contains fifteen illustrations from the Album du Voyage dans la Russie méridionale et la Crimée, par la Hongrie, La Valachie et la Moldavie, ed. Ernest Bourdin (Paris, 1838). The illustrations are discussed in a timeline-gallery exploring the work of Anatolii Nikitich Demidov. Click here to access the Princely Playboy in Crimea project (located on a compansion website).

The illustrations appear courtesy of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library. Click here to access the library record

The Library of Congress has made a digital version of the French-language edition of Demidov's written account accessible. Click here to page through the contents. If you read Russian you can access the Russian National Public Library's edition of access the Russian National Library's edition of Demidov's travel account.

Return from the Fountain (Retour de la fontaine)

Crimean Tatar women walk with jugs of water toward a house in the distance. A pregnant woman in the foreground wears a head covering; the younger women wear skullcaps (tiubeteikas) - all but the bareheaded women with a jug balanced on her right…

Village of Alushta (Vue du village tatar d'Alouchta)

Panorama of Alushta on Crimea's southern coast. In the foreground, a shepherd herds goats with the help of a few dogs. Crimean mountains (the high peak is Demirdzhi) and the Black Sea, complete with a vessel with furled sails, can be seen in the…

Family, domestic interior (Famille tatare dans son interier)

Interior view of a Tatar home near Kapsikhor. A large family is gathered around the father. Food and drink rest on the ground and on a low table. Small tapestries cover the floor. Plates, pitchers, and cloths are are displayed on a high shelf.

21…

Tatars at Prayer (Tatars en priere)

Crimean Tatar men pray inside the Istrim Cami mosque in Karasubazar.

19 October 1837

Dervishes (Derviches tatars)

Tatar dervishes sit or stand in a circle at the Istrim Cami Mosque in Karasubazar.

18 October 1837

Armenians and Tatars in a café (Armeniens et tatars dans un café)

Interior view of a cafe. Men sit around a table cross-legged smoking pipes. They have taken off their shoes.

18 October 1837

View of the Old Bazaar and Mount Mithridates (Vue du Vieux Bazar et du Mont Mithridate)

Panorama of the bazaar (market) in Kerch. People sit or stand in groups; a man rides by on a horse; camels, oxen, dogs, chickens, ducks, and birds walk freely around the bazaar.

8 October 1837

Tatar Peasant Houses (Maison de Paysans Tatars)

Tatar peasant homes were often built into the sides of hills. Here a man and a small boy stand on a terrace looking into the distance. Demidov trains his Orientalizing gaze on the interior and exterior of the "typical" Tatar home, describing the…

Butcher and other Tatar merchants (Boucher et autres marchands tartars)

View of Crimean Tatar butcher and other merchants, smoking and talking in the street outside their stalls. Meat hangs from hooks at the butcher's stall and a pack of dogs sit opposite the merchants.

20 August 1837

Main Street in Bahcesaray (Grande Rue de Baghtcheh-Sarai)

View of main street in Bahcesaray (Bakhchisaray). Crimean Tatars in ox-driven wagons ride down the street while others walk or sit on the side. Demidov notes that the street is "lined with shops selling things Tatar have produced for two centuries,"…

Jeune Femme Karaime

Visit to the home of the rabbi of Chufut Kale. Favorite wife blushed agreeably at the entrance of the foreigners. Fascinated by the woman's elegant attire: Une robe de soie rayee dessinait une taille bien prise, que nul artifice etranger n'avait…

Tatars Leaving the Mosque

Two "common Tatars" distribute alms as they exit the mosque. There is a mulla wearing a turban and a haji next to him - recognizable due to the white band. Among the mendicants there is a chapelet and another haji - "the rest are miserable Gypsies."…

Tatar Family Traveling (near Yalta)

A Crimean Tatar family travels on horseback and on foot near Yalta. Women in burkas carry infants in their laps. According to Demidov, the Tatars were free to pursue their favorite economic activities, including the farming "at which they excel."…

Halt of the Russian Military Convoy

View of Russian soldiers resting at the side of the road. In peacetime, soldiers were tasked with public works projects. This group was building the road between Yalta and Alupka. Image date: 12 August 1837

Château  of Count Voronstov

View of Count Mikhail Vorontsov's palace in the distance with Crimean Tatar men gathered in a circle in the foreground. According to Demidov, the (coastal) region around Alupka, "washed in sunlight and bathed by the sea," was quite the fashionable…

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