Abdülaziz (1830-1876), who ascended to the Ottoman throne in 1861 was an absolutist sultan sustaining the emergence of modern institutions that gained momentum with the Tanzimat (1839) and Islahat (1856) Reform Edicts. During his reign, the state dealt with rebellions and economic crises while going through a re-construction process. Although Abdülaziz never renounced his commitment to theocratic rule, he maintained this re-construction process. Therefore, the reconciliation of the contradictions that emerged between the “old” and the “new” governmentalities became the primary issue concerning the administrators. The art-works commissioned by the palace in this period verify this search for a new balance. The sultan who visited European cities in 1867 commissioned many art-works to local and foreign artists. These works prove that he attributed great importance to the creation of an imperial iconography which appealed both to local people and Europeans. Among them, The Ottoman Sultans painted by the Polish artist Stanislaw Chlebowski in 1867 has a special place, since it is the only group portrait of the Ottoman dynasty representing all the sultans in front of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It is argued in the paper that this portrait has two significances: first, it is arguably the visualization of the transition the Ottoman state was undergoing at the time. The state was stuck in-between the absolutist sovereignty based on Islamic rationality and the emerging modern state power. The use of the mosque in the background with its colossal/encompassing image and centralized planning, the Islamic scripts and the changing outfits of the rulers convey the idea of both the maintenance of absolutist sovereignty claiming the divine right to rule and the institutionalization of a centralized modern state. Secondly, it arguably represents the attempt of the modernizing state for the construction of a visual signifier transmitting the sense of “continuity in change”. The presence of every Ottoman sultan in the composition suggests the idea that the state was transforming but not losing its power because of being based on a powerful and well-established historical legacy. In the paper, the iconography of the portrait will be interpreted by examining the political rationality adopted by Aziz and its impact on the formation of different genres of art-works. A comparison will be made between the portrait and its European counterparts. The paper will be based on sources on the Ottoman political, social, architectural history as well as on the European and Ottoman portrait tradition.