OSMAN HAMDİ BEY

TURKISH ARTIST

He was born in Istanbul in 1842. He was a contemporary Ottoman man of his time. He was regarded as an intellectual. He established the first school of fine arts in Istanbul and was its director for the first 28 years.

THE TURTLE TRAINER

The turtle trainer is one of Osman Hamdi Bey’s most original and creative works. It has two versions.

The turtle trainer, dressed in a red dervish robe, wants to educate the turtles. Of course this was a metaphorical situation. It portrays this basic social message: Change is difficult, needs much patience. The turtles in this picture stand for a stubborn, resistant and slow changing society.

He is holding the ney. But unfortunately the turtles have no ears to hear the ney. He calls for westernization. The turtles are deaf to his ney.

The turtle trainer represents a patient intellectual. And the light coming from the window is also an important factor.

We have worked with 25 students.

One of our most talented students work on Osman Hamdi Bey.

She did a great job.

We hang it on our school wall.

Some of our students use fabric and pastel together.

We also use trinket. We use walnut to make turtle shells.

We use fibers in this work.

We used linocut technique.

We draw with charcoal.

Elif, our English teacher is good at drawing and she draw a sample on the board.

We took photographs .

They used collage technique.

She used pastel while drawing.

They used fabric technique.

Drawing made with charcoal.

They used crayon.

We use plasticine to make turtles.

The following pictures show our works with our students. Our students are 7th and 8th grade students.

Some of our students use colored papers they cut and paste them on a paper.

Our Comenius Corner:

Oil painting, Acrylic painting and Gouache painting are also used while drawing Osman Hamdi Bey.