Many travellers who stayed at the British Embassy tried to arrange a visit to Haghia Sophia [the Church of the Holy Wisdom] or Aya Sofya as the Turks call it. This magnificent ancient structure was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It was necessary to obtain a firman or permission from the Sultan for non-Muslims to visit this building at the beginning of the 19th century, and they were not often granted. Usually, the Embassy would make the arrangements and visitors would join the party if they could. This is a view from the gallery where women normally sat, looking down towards where the altar used to be. In Byzantine times there was also an area in the galleries reserved for women. This is a particularly good and early view of the structure before the thorough restoration by the Fossati brothers, commissioned by the Sultan in the 1850s
This picture was one of a series commissioned by Stratford Canning (later Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe), 1786-1880. He began his long diplomatic career in Turkey as first secretary to Robert Adair on his mission to Istanbul in 1808. On arrival Canning soon arranged to see officially (and unofficially) all manner of Ottoman institutions, buildings and customs. What made his curiosity really valuable is that he hired a local artist to make this large series of views and studies of what he had seen. The identity of the artist is unknown, though Turkish scholars believe that he was part of the studio or circle of Konstantin Kapidagli. His style combines the dense and brilliant water and bodycolour used by Ottoman artists with European conventions of representation and perspective.
As a young man, the artist and future neo-classical architect Charles Cockerell went to Istanbul in 1810, stayed at the embassy, and even met Byron there. There Cockerell (with an interpreter) met and discussed painting technique with this Greek artist whom, frustratingly, he did not name in his letters. Cockerell's copies of the Greek's architectural views are now in the British Museum. The Victoria and Albert Museum finally acquired the original set of drawings from Canning's daughter Charlotte in 1895.