The Tortoise Trainer

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The Tortoise Trainer
Turkish: Kaplumbağa Terbiyecisi
ArtistOsman Hamdi Bey
Year1906
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions221.5 cm × 120.0 cm (87.2 in × 47.24 in)
LocationPera Museum, Istanbul

The Tortoise Trainer (Turkish: Kaplumbağa Terbiyecisi) is a painting by Osman Hamdi Bey, with a first version created in 1906 and a second in 1907. Hamdi's painting of an anachronistic historical character attempting to train tortoises is usually interpreted as a satire on the slow and ineffective attempts at reforming the Ottoman Empire.

Description

The painting depicts an elderly man in traditional Ottoman religious costume: a long red garment with embroidered hem, belted at the waist, and a Turkish

Western style dress with the Tanzimat reforms in the mid-19th century. He holds a traditional ney flute and bears a nakkare drum on his back, with a drumstick hanging to his front. The man's costume and instruments suggests he may be a Dervish.[1]

The scene is set in a dilapidated upper room at the Green Mosque, Bursa, where the man is attempting to "train" the five tortoises at his feet, but they are ignoring him preferring instead to eat the green leaves on the floor. Above a pointed window is the inscription: Şifa'al-kulûp lika'al Mahbub ("The healing of the hearts is meeting with the beloved").[2][3]

Versions

The first version of Hamdi's painting was exhibited at the

Paris Salon, under the title L'homme aux Tortues ("Man with tortoises"). It was formerly in the collection of Turkish businessman Erol Aksoy [tr; de]. It was sold for US$3.5 million in 2004 and is currently displayed at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.[4][5]

A second smaller version was completed in 1907, dedicated to his child's father-in-law, Salih Münir Pasha. The second version was bought by the journalist Erol Simavi [tr] in the 1980s, and was exhibited at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in 2009.[6]

Both may be inspired by an article that Hamdi read in the Le Tour du Monde travel journal decades before, which described Korean tortoise trainers in Japan, who trained their animals to walk in lines to the beat of a drum.[7]

Historic context

Osman Hamdi Bey created the painting at a time of great social and political turmoil in the

First World War.[8]

Although not widely shown or understood at the time, the painting achieved greater significance in subsequent decades as it presaged the

partitioning.[9]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Aslan 2014, p. 118.
  2. ^ Aslan 2014, p. 119.
  3. ^ Eldem 2012, p. 380.
  4. ^ Nisa 2015, p. 180.
  5. ^ Eldem 2012, p. 348.
  6. ^ Nisa 2015, p. 182.
  7. ^ Eldem 2012, p. 350.
  8. ^ Pera Museum.
  9. ^ Nisa 2015, pp. 184–185.
  10. ^ Eldem 2012, p. 349.

Bibliography

  • Aslan, Sebnem (2014). "The Analysis of the Painting "Kaplumbaga Terbiyecisi: Tortoises Trainer" (1906-1907) of Osman Hamdi in Terms of Ottoman Leadership". IIB International Refereed Academic Social Sciences Journal. 5 (16): 115–137.
    ISSN 2146-5886
    .
  • Eldem, Edhem (2012). "Making Sense of Osman Hamdi Bey and his paintings". Muqarnas. 29: 339–383.
    JSTOR 23350369
    .
  • Nisa, Ari (2015). "The Purchase on Modernity: The Turkish National Narrative and Osman Hamdi Bey's The Tortoise Trainer". Thresholds. 43: 178–235.
    doi:10.1162/thld_a_00067
    .
  • "The Tortoise Trainer". Pera Museum. Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2022.

External links

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