(Wriezen/Oder 1853–1927 Vienna)
Portrait of Mehmed V, (Istanbul 1844-1918), Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman Empire in a lavishly decorated uniform with the breast stars of the Nishan-e-Imtiaz Order, the Osmanieh Order and the Medjidie Order, signed C. Pietzner,
watercolour on cardboard, 75 x 62 cm, oval, framed, (Hu)

Mehmed V, the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I (1823-1861), was the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan. He succeeded his brother on the throne at the age of 63, his reign lasting from 1909 to 1918. Having spent most of his life as a scholar, he was a refined and educated man. His reign was marked by the First World War and the loss of the empire’s territories, leading, although he did not live to see it, to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
An ally to the German and Austrian emperors, the Sultan was a general field marshal of the German Empire and a field marshal of the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Here he is represented with the breast star of the Orders of Distinction of the Ottoman Empire, of Osmanieh and of the Medjidie.

Carl Pietzner was a Viennese artist, mainly known for his photographs and the invention of relief photography, which he patented in 1898. Official photographer to the Imperial Court and owner of several photo parlours, he was commissioned to portray some of his highest-ranked official and high-profile contemporaries.