This presentation considers a major preoccupation of the so-called Constantinople Armenian Realist Generation (Պոլսահայ Իրապաշտ Սերունդ) – the phenomenon of bantkhdoutioun (պանդխտութիւն), the large-scale movement of provincial migrant workers from Ottoman Armenia to the imperial capital in the late nineteenth century – by delving into the hitherto untested waters of visual art production. Reflecting upon the manner of articulation of these concerns under conditions of increasingly tightening censorship, this lecture will propose that an artist’s brush was often able to evade the censor’s scalpel more effectively than the pen, to convey meaning under the guise of an ethnographic cloak.

Vazken Khatchig Davidian is a final year doctoral candidate in history of art at Birkbeck College, University of London. His thesis is entitled The Representation of the Figure of the Bantoukhd (Պանդուխտ, Migrant Worker) from Ottoman Armenia in Late Nineteenth Century Constantinople Realism. He is the editor of Towards Inclusive Art Histories: Ottoman Armenian Voices Speak Back, a Special Issue on Art History of the journal Études arméniennes contemporaines (Paris: Dec. 2015).