Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja (1720–1792) (1786): Art, History and Details

Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja (1720–1792) (1786) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Richard Cosway was a prolific painter in London, most well-known for his portrait miniatures and drawings, which he made both on commission and as personal exercises or mementos. Cosway and his wife, Maria Hadfield Cosway, held a fashionable salon at their London residence, and may have invited the likely subject of this drawing, the ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja (1720-1792). Abdurrahman Adja was in London in 1786, arrived to improve Tripoli’s reputation with Great Britain. Cosway portrayed the ambassador in a fleeting moment with eyes closed, making sure to capture the fine beard and robes for which he was much admired by London society.

Object facts

• Title: Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja (1720–1792)
• Date: 1786
• Creator attribution: Richard Cosway (British, 1742–1821)
• Culture: England
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper
• Dimensions: Matted: 38.4 x 28.6 cm (15 1/8 x 11 1/4 in.); Sheet: 33.2 x 24.9 cm (13 1/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2023.46

A detail from the museum

The attire of this gentleman is that of a high-ranking North African secretary or scholar, which led scholars to identify him as the ambassador from Tripoli.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ferrari, Emma, “I Disegni di Riccardo Cosway nella Biblioteca di Lodi,” Rassegna d’Arte XIII (1913)

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.