Martinus Rørbye (b. Drammen 1803, d. Copenhagen 1848)
“Brønden ved Seraillets port, Constantinopel”. The Well at the Gate of the Seraglio, Constantinople. 1836. Unsigned. Inscribed by the artist: “Constantinopel. Brønden ved Seraillets Port” and featuring the artist’s characteristic colour notes. Pencil, pen, and watercolour on paper. On the reverse, a sketch probably depicting the courtyard of the Beyazit Mosque. Sheet size 29×43 cm.
Provenance: Probably given as a gift by the artist to his sister Emilie (1805–1868), thence by descent until today.
As one of the first Danish artists to visit Constantinople, Martinus Rørbye arrived in the city on 19 December 1835, accompanied by the architect Michael Gottlieb Bindesbøll (1800–1856). His stay in the Ottoman capital marks a significant chapter in both his artistic development and in the Danish Golden Age’s engagement with the so-called “Orient.” Through his numerous drawings and sketches, Rørbye became a key visual interpreter of Constantinople’s architecture, street life and atmosphere for a Danish audience. His contribution to the contemporary and later visual understanding of the Ottoman world remains of lasting importance.
His travel diary offers a vivid testimony to the sense of anticipation and fascination he felt upon arrival.
On December 19 he records (in Danish):
“We arrived at sunset in Constantinople. The magnificent sight of the great city in all [its] splendour is spared me until tomorrow morning. This evening we saw only the illumination of a few mosques. It was too late to go ashore.”
As the ship arrived too late in the day, Rørbye was obliged to wait patiently on board until the following morning before he could properly experience the city.
Already at 5 o’clock in the morning on December 20, Rørbye continues in his diary:
“It is 5 in the morning, and I wrote the previous lines by the light of the little lamp in the cabin; it was impossible for me to sleep any longer, I am full of anticipation for the coming day; the ship lies at anchor just outside the Seraglio. Daylight finally revealed Constantinople to me in all its splendour; it deserves its great name. It all felt like a new world — incredibly fantastical.”
However, the artist’s initial enthusiasm was soon challenged by the harsh winter cold and the state of the city itself. Snow and frost made working outdoors nearly impossible, and he later expressed his frustration with the impassable and “poorly arranged streets.”
It was not until December 31 that the weather grew mild enough to allow him to draw en plein air for the first time:
“As the weather was somewhat milder, I dared for the first time to sketch near one of the mosques in Galata, and it went so well, in terms of the Turks, that I shall repeat the attempt as often as the weather permits.”
This long-awaited opportunity to work en plein air—a key motivation behind the journey—marked the beginning of a series of important subjects that are today regarded as among the earliest and most authentic Danish depictions of the Ottoman Empire.
On January 24, 1836—just 24 days after his arrival in Constantinople—Rørbye recorded the following entry in his travel diary regarding the creation of the present drawing:
“In the morning, I went over to Constantinople and sketched—first at the so-called New Mosque by the harbour, and then at the fountain outside the outer gate of the Seraglio. I stood there as calmly and undisturbed as I have ever managed in this city; from time to time, a few guards came by to have a look and occasionally told onlookers to move along. One is, in fact, often better off when dealing with those who, in some way, belong to the new system, rather than with the true Muslims, for whom art remains something impermissible.”
The diary entry offers rare insight into the practical and cultural conditions under which Rørbye worked, highlighting both the challenges and the shifting attitudes toward art in a city at the crossroads of tradition and reform.
Rørbye’s remarks also underscore just how essential it was for him to work in peace and without interruption in front of his chosen subject. It is precisely under such conditions—when the weather permitted and the surroundings were cooperative—that his drawings acquired the immediacy and precision that make them so highly sought after today.
On the reverse of the present drawing, Rørbye executed a small sketch, likely depicting a section of the courtyard at the Beyazit Mosque, which he visited on several occasions.
On February 1, 1836, Rørbye departed Constantinople and continued his journey toward Athens, carrying with him a substantial body of sketches.
Many of the drawings and painted studies Rørbye produced during his extended study tour through Italy, Greece, and the Ottoman Empire between 1834 and 1837 would later serve as the foundation for his large, meticulously composed works—often completed several years after his return to Copenhagen. The present drawing provided the direct basis for his monumental painting 'The Fountain at the Square of St. Sophia near the Gate of the Seraglio in Constantinople' (1846, 112 × 158 cm), today at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. The composition and perspective of the drawing are virtually identical to the finished painting, with notable variations only in the figures and animals.
While it was primarily Rørbye’s large-scale, studio-based works that garnered critical acclaim during his lifetime, there is today significant scholarly and collector interest in the oil sketches and watercolours he executed directly from life—such as the present example, where the immediacy of the experience and the artist’s sensory engagement remain vividly preserved in the rendering of the subject.
In 1840, members of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts gifted a watercolour by Rørbye depicting the same motif to King Christian VIII, on the occasion of his resignation as president of the Academy. That work is now in His Majesty The King’s Reference Library.
Condition report available on request
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