An Armenian wedding procession, School of Jean Baptiste Vanmour, 18th century

Gros & Delettrez, Paris, 25 June 1996, lot 126

In this composition, a group of musicians lead the procession, followed by the bridegroom attended by a candle-bearer. The bride, draped in red, is accompanied by a group of women. Set outdoors, the scene unfolds among architectural remains, on which onlookers are perched, with a cluster of buildings in the background.

A comparable painting by Jean Baptiste Vanmour, identified as an 'Armenian wedding', is held in the Rijksmuseum (inv. no.SK-A-2001), and belongs to the group of works associated with the Vanmour school, a body of paintings produced in early eighteenth-century that record local customs, dress, and ceremonial life in the Ottoman Empire for a European audience. Vanmour, a French painter active at the Ottoman court, became renowned for his detailed depictions of Ottoman society, and his compositions were widely replicated by followers and later artists.