From Slave to Sultan’s Wife

Digital drawing, archival pigment inkjet print on fine art paper, Limited edition of 5, 42 x 29.7 cm, 350 USD

This portrait was inspired by Hurrem Haseki Sultan, the historically-accurate head wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. A Ukrainian girl whose real name was Anastasia Lisowska, she is more commonly known as Roxelana. Captured by Tatar nomads at the age of 15, she was sold as a slave to the Palace of Crimea. She was later given as a concubine to the Ottoman Sultan’s harem in Istanbul. Roxelana used her beauty, sharp instincts, and cleverness to become one of the 16th century’s most powerful women. Had she been told the day she was captured that she would one day be a sultan’s wife and live in unsurpassed luxury, she would probably have laughed out loud.