Victoria Street, Nicosia

Fay Pearce, married to Arnold Pearce, lived in Cyprus in the thirties. This oil painting captures a point of transition in the history of Cyprus when aspects of modernity started appearing in what used to be a traditional island society. This is most vividly reflected in modes of dress which range from the elegant European style of the lady portrayed in the background, to the village fashions of street peddlers appearing in the foreground. The lady boasts a hat, itself a sign of affluence in a road that used to be inhabited by prosperous Armenians. Beyond the class dimension, the ethnic element also manifests itself in the painting. A Greek peddler wearing a red fez mingles comfortably with Turks in white turbans suggesting a peaceful co-existence of the island’s communities. A third type of person, a man in modern civilian clothes, also appears at the bottom right of the picture. Victoria Street, one of the most important avenues in old Nicosia, connected Paphos Gate to Kyrenia Gate and was framed by the beautiful manors of the local elite.