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Although a number of 19th century Orientalist portraits were produced by European artists who had never visited the countries or peoples depicted, many originated from travels made to newly accessible areas of the Middle East and North Africa. The present drawing offers a different story however, in that it falls into neither of these categories. Or perhaps it falls into both. The sitter in question is not an artist’s model posing in Eastern dress, but a European. Georg August Wallin (1811-1852) was a Fenno-Swedish Orientalist, linguist and explorer, who spent six years between 1843 and 1849 living in the Middle East and northern Arabia under the guise of an Egyptian-Arab doctor named ‘Abd Al-Wali’.

Although Wallin’s name may be largely unfamiliar to readers today, he is a central figure in the story of European exploration in the Middle East and was much lauded contemporaneously for his daring tale and ground-breaking field research. As the first European to explore regions of northern Arabia and Persia, and as one of the first to have completed the pilgrimage to Mecca, Wallin’s experiences were of great intrigue to a public giddy with Egyptomania.

Wallin travelled widely between Constantinople and Cairo, passing through Baghdad, Jerusalem, Medina and Alexandria, although his most edifying experiences came amongst the Bedouin tribes of the desert. His journals detail colourful anecdotes of campfire scenes, close shaves with bandits and encounters of the ‘other’. His disguise and thorough knowledge of the Qur’an even led to scenarios in which he was obliged to officiate make-shift religious ceremonies, performing rituals at both weddings and funerals. As a student however, travelling under the premise of doctoral research, Wallin’s journals also include much of academic significance, including information on Bedouin poetry and Arabic linguistics. Adept with instruments as he was with languages, Wallin’s notes also include transcriptions of musical melodies, adding colour to his literary images and providing another field of study with invaluable source material.

In 1849 Wallin returned to Europe and in 1851 he finally completed his doctoral thesis, winning prizes from the Geographical Society of Paris, the East India Company in London and receiving a “Royal Award for Literary Merit”. In 1851 he took up a professorship of Oriental literature at the University of Helsinki but died soon afterwards a day before his 41st birthday. Wallin’s posthumous reputation has suffered outside of his native Finalnd in part for his early death and the unfinished projects left behind and in part for the inaccessibility of his Finnish and Swedish writings. This has recently been righted with translations of many of his journals now thankfully available in English.

The present drawing by Cecilio Pizarro (1818-1886) takes after the only known portrait of Wallin made from life [fig. 1]. The portrait was drawn by the elusive C. Cajander between 1847-9. Nothing is known of Cajander and no other drawings from their hand are known. The dating and appearance of the portrait also make it unclear as to whether it was made before or after Wallin’s return to Europe. He is clad in traveller’s garb with a tightly curled beard and has yet to revert to the more conventional appearance seen in Johanna Ramstedt’s deathbed portrait. In Ramstedt’s later image Wallin is portrayed with slicked back hair and a much shorter beard. Ramstedt’s portrait would form the basis of Wallin’s likeness in Robert Ekman’s celebrated posthumous portrait, which now holds pride of place in the Helsinki University Museum.

Exactly how Cajander’s portrait of Wallin entered wider circulation is unclear, although it evidently left some enduring impression on late 19th century European artists since at least 6 different versions of the image are known, all of which are attributed to different artists, working in different countries, and operating in different eras. The British artist Frederick Sandys (1806-1886) first reproduced the portrait in 1857; the present drawing by Pizarro was likely produced in the 1850s or 1860s; the American George Henry Hall (1825-1913) made a fourth version in 1881; and the Italian-Turkish Leonardo da Mango (1843-1930) made a fifth version in 1910. A sixth unsigned and undated version is with Antico Fine Art [fig. 2]. In spite of this proliferation of images the sitter’s identity had been forgotten in connection with these portraits until now.

Cecilio Pizarro was a Toledo-born draughtsman, lithographer and restorer who first enrolled at the Royal School of Drawing and Noble Arts of Santa Isabel at the age of fifteen and rose so sharply that by the age of twenty-one he had become assistant to his professor. Many of the young artist’s first commissions came as an illustrator and in this capacity Pizarro contributed designs for Genaro Pérez Villaamil’s architectural series, España Artística y Monumental, illustrated essays for the historian Nicolás Magán and produced decorations for the Toledo theatre.

In 1848 Pizarro relocated to Madrid and continued to provide illustrations for a number of popular publications, including Art in Spain and Semanario Pintoresco Español. He also continued to produce scenographic works, ultimately culminating in a grand commission from Lord Howden, English ambassador to Spain, who commissioned a series of thirty paintings depicting the most distinctive views and structures of central Spain. A selection of these pictures are now held in the Prado, Madrid. Pizarro would in fact work as a restorer at the Prado from 1868 onwards, having served as curator at the Museo de la Trinidad prior to its incorporation within the larger museum.

There is no record that Pizarro ever travelled to North Africa or the Middle East, however an album of 300 drawings acquired by the Prado in 2004 demonstrates that he was no stranger to Orientalist subjects. The monuments of Muslim Spain provided Pizarro with a readily accessible Orientalist framework which informed many of his scenographic works, including the Prado’s Arab Door of the Plaza de Armas [fig. 3]. An academic study which is comparable with the present drawing can be seen at the Museo Lazaro Galdiano [fig. 4]. The study is dated to c.1850 and suggests that the present drawing may date to the same period when news of Wallin’s journey was still relatively fresh, and the young artist was new to Madrid, producing portraits and reproductions for clients.