The present lot by the German artist Paul von Franken is a depiction of the eighteenth-century Ishak Pasha Palace, which sits in the Doğubeyazıt district of Ağrı province of eastern Turkey. Franken belonged to the generation of late Romantic painters attracted to the beauty and exotic mystery of the Near East.

The painting meticulously renders the detail of the dramatic architecture and mountainous landscape, adding to the fantasy which the artist so often sought to conceive with his works. Groups of figures populate the palace courtyard but, despite their intricacy, serve merely as staffage to animate the impressive surrounding vista. Soldiers, identified by their Imperial Russian uniform, congregate among the citizens. They nod to ongoing military conflict in the region and, unbeknown to the artist at the time, foreshadow further attack and occupation by Russian forces during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. A closely related composition was published as an etching in an 1861 issue of Die Gartenlaube magazine .