Rupen Manas (1810-1875)

Sebuh Manas (1816-1889), a brother of Rupen, and another Manas named Jozef (1835-1916) both served as court artists during the reigns of Mahmud II (1808-1839), Abdulmecid I (1839-1861), Abdulaziz (1861-1876) and Abdulhamid ll (1876-1909).

Portrait of Abdulmecid I

Most notably, imperial portraitist Rupen Manas, chief interpreter at the Ottoman Embassy in Paris in 1847, received a Mecidiye medal in 1854, while his brother Sebuh Manas, also an imperial portraitist, received one the following year.The Manas brothers were assigned in the Ottoman embassy in Paris, the portraits made by Rupen Manas (181 0?- 1 875) were distributed to other embassies in Europe. Abdulmecid gave orders for a series of oil portraits of all the Ottoman sultans before him to the artist Portet. These portraits made to be exhibited in the palace are still in the Topkapi Palace.During this period interest in things Western manifested itself also in the art of painting. Mahmut II sent Rupen Manas to Paris for training in art. He had his own portrait done in oils by this artist and then had it displayed at the Sublime Porte.

Sources
Armenian painters in the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1923. by Garo Kurkman
Orientalism and Turkey, Semra Germaner, Zeynep İnankur - 1989