This sensitive study is one of a very few straightforward portraits by European artists of Turkish women, who at this time would not normally unveil themselves in front of a Turkish male, let alone a Frankish infidel, unless he was related in the correct degree. It is not known how Preziosi managed to take this likeness, but the friends he made amongst the Turks may have helped. There is also the possibility that Âdile Hanim might have been an Alevi, an unorthodox Muslim, who on occasion did not wear a veil. Âdile’s face is the reality that visiting western Europeans tried to glimpse behind the veils women wore in the street. Her broad firm face and steady gaze belie the image of the simpering beauty that existed in the untutored imaginations of painters who never visited the East.