Folia Historica 29. (Budapest, 2014)

II. KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Csorba György - Lengyel Beatrix: Roger Fenton készíthetett-e Kmety Györgyről fotográfiát? Kmety György ismert, ismeretlen és vélt egykorú ábrázolásai

Széchényi National Library, Portrait Collection of the Manuscript Archive, inventory number: 1010

The picture was certainly taken in Western Europe. There is a written record of a portrait in uniform taken at the studio of J. J. B. Mayall (London), according to which in 1867 the negative was still in the studio. Sebő Vukovics, a friend of Kmety, wanted to have a copy of it made to give to Kmety's brother, living in Hungary. We know of a carte de visite (Janus Pannonius Múzeum, Pécs, inventory number.: 54.743.1) and an illustration in the Pest weekly Hazánk s a Külföld (September 17,1865), based on the photograph.

We also list two pictures which can be proven not to represent Kmety. The mistaken identification is mainly the result of the particular way in which names were given in the Ottoman Empire. At that time, people received only first names. In some, but not all, cases these were complemented by an adjective that was attributed to the individual alone and was therefore not hereditary. During the Crimean war, several high-ranking officials and soldiers bore the fairly common name Ismail; among them, György Kmety. It is extremely hard to distinguish between them, as the laconic descriptions can deceive even skilled historians.

Standing knee-length portrait of Ismail Pasha (photo 6.)

Lithography by Rudolf Hoffmann (1820-1882) based on a drawing by Zutter Inscriptions: in a crooked line below the picture: Nach d. Natur géz. V. Zutter, in the bottom right, below the picture: R. Hoffmann lith.; in the centre, below the picture: Druck v. fos. Stoufs in Wien / Ismael Pascha / Commandant der kais. Ottóm. Armee in Asien; bottom left: Verlag u Eigenthum v. F. Paterna in Wien; bottom right: Vervielfältigung Vorbehalten.

The subject of the portrait is certainly neither Kmety, nor the later Egyptian Khedive Ismail Pasha (1830-1895). It is more likely to be the Ismail Pasha who achieved great military success in October 1853, at Vidin on the Danube front of the Crimean War. Later, in September 1854, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Anatolian (=Asian) army, but was unable to take up his post owing to ill health. He stayed with the army on the Danube, but did eventually take command of the Anatolian army in 1856-1857.

Roger Fenton's photographs of Ismail Pasha (photo 7.)

The on-line catalogues of the Library of Congress and the Royal Collection (London), as well as a few publications, identify Ismail Pasha as György Kmety in pictures by Roger Fenton which portray the Pasha (three of these are held in the Library of Congress, and all four in the Royal Collection). However, no records prove this. Fenton took photographs only in Crimea; he never visited the war zone in Asia Minor, where the Hungarian-born General served. There is no evidence that Kmety ever left his post in Anatolia during the period between April 1854 and November 1855, when he was stationed there. Also, in a letter to his wife dated 29 April 1855, Fenton writes the following: "two days ago I received a visit from Ismail Pasha, leader of the Egypt troops, and I could take a few good [pictures] of him and his attendants." However, the commander of the Egyptian troops was certainly not György Kmety, who at the time was involved in the defence of Kars. The English exhibitions of Fenton's pictures at the time never identified the Ismail Pasha in his photographs as György Kmety; nor did any Hungarian emigrants recognise him.

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