Portraits from the Sarkis Diranyan Gallery

We all know great Armenian artists like Ivan Aivazovsky (Hovhannes Ayvazyan), Martiros Saryan, and Arshile Gorki. But there are many amazing artists of the past and present who remain below the line of attention.

From time to time, the works of such artists are published with the hope of public appreciation. Thus, we present the portraits of 19th-century artist Sarkis Diranian.

Sarkis Diranian was born in 1854 in Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire, and passed away in 1918 in Paris, France. He was an artist-orientalist. At some point in his life, Diranian moved to Paris to continue his career in art. There, he won the “Honorary Mention” award in 1892, as well as another “Honorary Mention” at the World’s Fair in 1900.

In 1927, Sarkis Diranian painted the portrait of Lieutenant Governor Norman S. Case in the Rhode Island State House.

Brown University has one of the best collections of paintings by Sarkis Diranian in the United States. Portraits of Chancellor William Goddard and his wife Edith Goddard were painted by Diranian between 1885 and 1895. They are still in the collection of Brown University in Rhode Island along with other paintings by Diranian.