Portrait of a Youth Wearing Red Trousers and a Green Tunic

This small painting depicts a young man wearing a white turban, red trousers with a matching sleeveless, fur-lined outer-garment. He wears a green tunic secured with a belt underneath and the sleeves of his white almost transparent inner shirt are visible below his elbows. The plain background is decorated with an ornamental arch-like element on top. A thin decorative border is placed on the left followed by a thicker border of brick color framing the painting on two sides. The outer border is made of little squares in alternating hues of light brown. The figurative style of the figure, the simple arch-like decoration and the border treatment suggest that it was part of an album made for Ahmed I (r. 1603-17). The album was compiled by Kalender Pasha (d. 1616) who was renowned for his skills in setting margins. This painting along with another figure (1985.278) most likely constituted the top left and bottom right corners of a single folio.