Osman Hamdi Bey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Osman Hamdi Bey | |
 Self-portrait (Source&permission: Osman Hamdi Bey Museum, Gebze, Kocaeli) |
|
| Birth name | Osman Hamdi Bey |
| Born | 1842 Istanbul |
| Died | 24 February 1910 Istanbul |
| Nationality | Turkish |
| Field | painting, archaeology |
| Famous works | The Tortoise Trainer |
Osman Hamdi Bey, (1842 İstanbul - 24 February 1910 İstanbul) was a prominent and pioneering Turkish painter. He was also an accomplished archaeologist, and is considered as the pioneer of the museum curator's profession in Turkey. He was the founder of Istanbul Archaeology Museum and of İstanbul Academy of Fine Arts (Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi in Turkish), Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts today.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Although born into a family of the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire (he was the son of İbrahim Edhem Pasha, a former grand vizier), he went to primary school in the popular İstanbul quarter of Beşiktaş, after which he studied law, first in İstanbul (1856), and then in Paris (1860). During nine years in Paris, the international capital of arts, he showed a keen interest for the artistic events of his day. Apart from his studies in law, he took up courses in painting in the workshops of a number of well-known painters of his time. Once back in Turkey (1869), he was assigned to the foreign relations department of the Ottoman province of Baghdad. In 1871, he returned to İstanbul, as the vice-director of the Protocol Office of the Palace. During the 1870s, he worked on several assignments in the upper echelons of the Ottoman bureaucracy.
[edit] Career
His true career can be said to have begun with his assignment as the director of the Imperial Museum (Müze-i Hümayun) in 1881. The museum depended directly on the palace for funding. Using his position there as a leverage, he founded the Academy of Fine Arts in 1883, and was the first dean. In 1884, he oversaw the promulgation of a Regulation prohibiting historical artifacts from being smuggled abroad (Asar-ı Atîka Nizamnamesi), a giant step in constituting a legal framework of preservation. Representatives or middlemen of 19th century European Powers routinely smuggled artifacts with historical value from within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire (which then comprised the geographies of ancient Greek and Mesopotamian civilizations, among others), often resorting to shadily obtained licences or bribes, to enrich museums in European capitals.
He conducted the first scientific based archaeological researches done by a Turkish team. His digs included sites as varied as the Commagene tomb-sanctuary in Nemrut Dağı in southeastern Anatolia (a top tourist's venue in Turkey and a UNESCO World Heritage Site today, within the Adıyaman Province), the Hekate sanctuary in Lagina in southwestern Anatolia (also much visited, and within the Muğla Province today), as well as in Sidon in Lebanon. The sarcophagus he discovered in Sidon (among which, the so-called Sarcophagus of Alexander the Great) are still considered as jewels among archeological findings. To lodge these, he started building what is today the Istanbul Archaeology Museum in 1881. The museum officially opened in 1891 under his directorship.
[edit] Later life
In the last decades of his life, he directed his efforts toward improving this museum, and also concentrated on his activities as a painter. He lived in the family mansion in the village of Eskihisar, near Gebze, a district of Kocaeli Province, a short ride from İstanbul, that he had had extended. His house was restored in 1982 and is open to visitors today as Osman Hamdi Bey Museum. He also made frequent excursions, highly beneficial for inspiration as reflected in his paintings, to another mansion he had had built during the Lagina excavations in the town of Turgut adjacent to the archaeological site (which today, is a municipality in Muğla Province, with Osman Hamdi Bey's centenary house still standing). He died on 24 February 1910 in another family residence, this one situated in the Kuruçeşme quarter of İstanbul.
His paintings, in which he wisely and skillfully employed Oriental elements, have since been included in many private or public collections in Turkey and abroad.
[edit] Family
He was the granduncle of another famous name in Turkey. The mother of Cemal Reşit Rey, one of the five pioneers of classical music in Turkey (termed the 'The Turkish Five') in the first half of the 20th century, was his niece. It is notable indeed that his family produced a considerable number of notable people. Halil Edhem Eldem (the surname "Eldem" has been adopted by the family with the civil records reform by the nascent Republic of Turkey in 1928) took up the archaeology museum after Osman Hamdi Bey's death and has also been a deputy for ten years under in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Sedat Hakkı Eldem is a remarkable architect who left his imprint on the architectural school of the early years of the Republic. Yet another son, İsmail Galib Bey, is considered as the founder of numismatics as a scientific discipline in Turkey. Later generations of the family also produced illustrious names.
[edit] The Tortoise Trainer
His 1906 painting, "The Tortoise Trainer", recently broke a record in Turkey by being sold for the amount of 3,5 million Dollars in December 2004. The painting expresses a sarcastic innuendo on the painter's own view of his style of work compared to those of his collaborators and apprentices, and is also a reference to the historical fact of tortoises having being been employed for illuminative and decorative purposes, by placing candles on the shell, in evening outings during the Tulip Era in the Ottoman Empire in early 18th century. The painting was acquired by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation and is currently on display in Pera Museum in İstanbul, a part of this foundation.
[edit] See also
For another painting by Osman Hamdi Bey, see the article on Milas carpets and rugs.
