I visited Pera Museum this week to view – By the Water’s Edge, The Life and Art of Halil Paşa (1857-1939). Paşa (Pasha) is a “key figure” in Ottoman Empire art. I also enjoyed other exhibitions, especially the works of Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910), renowned Turkish archaeologist, curator, and painter.
Osman Hamdi Bey – The Tortoise Trainer 1879Exhibitions
Pera Museum exhibitions are displayed on five floors at the historic Bristol Hotel in Galata Tepebaşı quarter. The focus is Orientalism in 19th-century art:
- Orientalist Painting – European, Ottoman & Turkish artists
- Anatolian Weights & Measures – pieces from prehistory to present
- Kütahya Tiles & Ceramics – works dating to the 1980s
- Temporary Exhibitions – projects with other museums featuring internationally acclaimed artists
Exhibitions On Display
The following exhibitions are on display at the Pera:
- By the Water’s Edge, The Life and Art of Halil Paşa (1857-1939) – a painter of “military origin who played a significant role in the transformation of painting from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic of Turkey”. Paşa is credited with “pioneering open-air painting in Türkiye”. He uses spectacular light and color in his landscapes!
- Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters – paintings and portraits of ambassadors exploring art patronage and political/social cross-culture
- Osman Hamdi Bey – his life and art seen through works from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation Collection. An Ottoman intellectual and the first Turkish archaeologist, Bey was “nurtured” during authoritarian reformism of the Tanzimat era. He founded Istanbul’s Archaeological Museums and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
- Extraordinary Minas – story of inspiration and innovation in Kütahya tiles and ceramics during the late 19th-20th centuries, highlighting the efforts of Kütahya masters – Minas Avramidis, Hafız Mehmed Emin Efendi, Artin and Garabet Minasyan, and David Ohannesyan
- The Art of Anatolian Weights & Measures – examines how measuring and weighing became “intertwined with artistic self-expression”
Halil Paşa
Halil Paşa was a “prominent Turkish painter, who captured Istanbul’s fading imperial elegance at the turn of the 20th century”. He was director of the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts, known today as the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, and is considered the “first Ottoman painter to mix impressionism with his love of nature”.
“Halil Pasha, was the son of Tophane Müşiri Ferit Selim Pasha, a founder of the Turkish Imperial Military Academy, Mekteb-i Fünûn-u Harbiye-i Şahane. He served as an aide to Sultan Abdülaziz, and was given an artist workshop in the palace.”
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“Halil Pasha is one of the best-known names of the Ottoman military-painter generation — a master of Bosporus Strait light, he was considered the first Turkish impressionist.” Nazlan Ertan Al-Monitor
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Paşa went to Paris in 1880 and studied in the workshops of local artists. After returning to Istanbul, he created works of art, presented them at exhibitions, and won several awards in Paris and Vienna. Today, his paintings sell for record amounts. In 2019, his painting, Girl Reciting Quran 1880, sold at a London auction for $7.4 million.
Halil Pasha, a founder of the Ottoman Painters Society, started academic impressionism in Turkish education. He travelled to Egypt in the 1920s, and created portraiture, still life, and landscapes. His works reflect the Egyptian people and arid land, while “contrasting the intense green of the Nile Valley against the surrounding yellow desert“.
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“Halil Paşa’s works gravitate toward landscapes with impressionistic effects, depicting the beauty of Bosphorus shores and their mansions, boats, sea movements, and reflections in the water.”
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Osman Hamdi Bey
Bey’s painting Woman with Mimosas was created with an “orientalist perspective“. He was influenced by Western artists, and his portrayal of Islamic architecture, tiles, carpets, and costumes is “highly detailed and realistic“.
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“Osman Hamdi Bey, a multifaceted personality, is best known as a painter of figurative compositions and portraits, as well as landscapes, still lifes, charcoal portraits, and drawings.” islamansiklopedisi.org
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“Although the main theme of European orientalists was the decline of Islamic civilization, Bey didn’t deal with the subject or include themes of ruined buildings, lust, and savagery in his paintings. There are traces of orientalism in his paintings, but he goes beyond classical Orientalism, by using color, composition, and content to add a unique spirituality to his works.”
It was an enjoyable and educational afternoon at Pera Museum!