Deux civils (officiers anglais en chapeau blanc), ont commande un repas au chef mustashi turc

Joseph Vermeiren was a geologist from Belgium married to the Greek Cypriot Agni Markides. He came to Cyprus to work at the copper mines and he was an amateur artist. He held several of his own exhibitions on the island and participated in many others. The picture concentrates on an everyday life scene, probably in the centre of Nicosia, near Bedestan. A makeshift kiosk and a peddler’s wheel barrow are the two focal points of social gatherings. The kiosk offers shade, the chance of rest to passers by, and the opportunity for gossip. Greeks, Turks and an Arab cluster round the kiosk exchanging views. It is interesting to note the development of the local costume. The Greek and the Turk are depicted wearing a black and white pair of baggy trousers respectively. The seated women are dressed in clothing of the sixties as opposed to a female bystander who appears in a long blue skirt, heavy black boots and a white kerchief covering her head in the traditional manner. Very near, stand two men, one probably an Arab wearing a turban and the other a Greek Cypriot whose baggy trousers have developed into a pair of blue pants, though still held by a wide red belt. A leg of meat hangs from the wheel barrow. Such makeshift kitchens provided roast beef sandwiches which, although introduced by the British, satisfied the taste of the locals thereafter. The chef in blue trousers is relaxing on his chair, talking with his friends, while a female, probably his wife, is preparing sandwiches for the two British customers identified by the artist as officers in civilian clothes and white hats. The scenes are set against the background of an old traditional Cypriot house of ochre colour. At the right hand corner, the presence of a medieval building indicates that the site is somewhere in the old town.