http://www.sanalmuze.org/arastirarakogrenmekeng/osmanhamdi.htm

Hey Ros

This is a WONDERFUL picture. I am an Osman Hamdi Bey fan, and this is his best.

I have seen many many reproductions of it. None of them prepared me for the beauty of the original. The light shines out from the window in an amazing way that NO other representation can match.

If you like this, SEE THE ORIGINAL: In Pera Museum, near the British Consulate and Istiklal Caddesi in IStanbul.

It's worth the entrance fee just for this one picture!

MyMerhaba: http://www.mymerhaba.com/en/main/content.asp_Q_id_E_2286

When I was at Topkapi Palace I noticed how so much of Ottoman art did not have ANY women in the depictions. There were a few here and there but it was obvious in their art that depicting women seemed to be somewhat of a taboo. I see that this gentleman didn't seem to mind painting women, so I think he must have been a little different from his contemporaries. Of course, my observations are strictly based on what I have seen. I don't know what they actually had displayed in Topkapi palace (or any other palace) in its hayday but I found it stricking that most of the art in museums and palaces in Turkey depicted mostly men in their artwork.

different and unique theme of Osman Hamdi is the "Turtle Trainer" (1906, 223 x 117) (9) . Especially in "Sadabad Entertainments" in "Lale Epoch", at night the gardens were lighted with turtles carrying candles on their back, and this knowledge can be the clue in interpreting of the this painting. Thus in the Ottoman State these "turtles" were also included in the pay-roll as "palace-employees" due to their function as living lamps. An allegory between the way a high ranked official like Osman Hamdi (Fine Arts Academy, Archaeological Museum, National Depths Directorate) worked and his subordinates can be sensed here. The Trainer who is painted as Osman Hamdi Bey himself (we remember a more commonly known trainer, the lion trainer) with his reed flute, tongs hanging from his neck and a Dervish's pot on his back (symbol of fatalism) is supervising three turtles eating leaves with their heads bowed in front. The two other turtles at the back are trying to approach to the leaves... This picture can be interpreted as an merciless, hopeless satire of his towards his fellow colleagues at work. The light coming from the only so low window is the important determining factor which coordinatesthe all the other elements of the picture, eliminating all the unnecessary details (think about the hordes of figures and things in the Western Orientalist pictures), and this results in a very successful picture, a masterpiece.

TALES FROM THE EXPAT HAREM:

One example I remember is Eveline Zoutendijk’s “The Painter or the Boy”. In the story, the hotel owner Eveline Zoutendijk hangs a reproduction of an Osman Hamdi painting on one of the lobby walls. One of the staff, Halim gets very offended because he thinks that the painting is against Islam. He demanded that the painting should be taken away. Instead of firing him or taking the painting right away, Eveline tries to understand and is willing to negotiate. She goes through an intensive research on the painting. She talks to experts, the shop owner who sold the reproduction to her and Halim many times till she makes a decision that she initially doesn’t foresee