A PORTRAIT OF MUHAMMAD ALI PASHA, WALI OF EGYPT (R. 1805 - 1848)
Possibly England, dated 1846

Pencil on paper, the vertical-format composition depicting a bust portrait of Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Albanian governor and de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, who earned the title of wali and pasha from the rank of military commander in an Albanian Ottoman force after defeating the French during Napoleon's occupation and recovering Egypt, portrayed with a multi-folded, voluminous turban on his head, a large fur-lined coat, and a thick white beard, underneath him a note in cursive English reading Mahomet Ali Pasha of Egypt, dated 1846 and signed A. S. Allan (?) in the lower right corner, pasted onto a larger paper with embossed vegetal margin, the verso with a hand-coloured aquatint portrait of a European blonde and blue-eyed maiden, 28.3cm x 23.5cm.