The Purchase on Modernity

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 THE PURCHASE ON MODERNITY

THE TURKISH NATIONAL NARRATIVE AND

OSMAN HAMDI BEY’S

THE TORTOISE TRAINER

Nisa Ari

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 On December 12, 2004, crowds at the Artam Antik A.Ş. 1 I would like to acknowledge auction in Istanbul watched the price for Osman Hamdi Bey’s Naşit Ari for his assistance with Kaplumbağa Terbiyecisi (“Te Tortoise Trainer,” 1906, translating Ottoman Turkish Fig. 1) escalate forty-two times as the Pera Museum and the phrases. All Turkish language translations provided are my Istanbul Modern museum grasped at the chance to add own. this painting to their respective collections. Following a nation-wide banking crisis in 2001, the painting was being 2 Not purely a fabrication of my sold at auction from the seized collection of the bankrupt own, other scholars and journal- İktisat Bank. Despite estimates for the painting to sell at ists have made the same analogy 1.95 million Turkish Lira (TL), the Pera Museum ultimately between The Tortoise Trainer and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona bought the work for 5 million TL (approximately 3.5 million Lisa . See, for example, Edhem dollars), the highest price ever paid for any Turkish paint- Eldem, “Ressamlar, Kaplum- ing. Both museums wished to possess this exceptional piece bağalar, Tarihciler…,” [“Paint- ers, Tortoises, Historians…”] from the late-Ottoman era, but were they vying for it for Toplumsal Tarih 1 no. 185 (May the same reasons? 2009): 20–31 and Burçak Güven, Te Pera Museum’s holdings consist of three permanent “İş dünyası bugün yeni bir rekor için kapı şacak!,” [“Today the collections—Anatolian weights and measures, Kütahya tiles Business World Will Scramble and ceramics, and Orientalist paintings—showcasing for a New Record!”] İş’te İnsan highlights of the Anatolian region from before the Ottoman November 27, 2011, http://www. , isteinsan.com.tr/yazarlar/burcak_ Empire began until its dissolution in 1923. Te Istanbul guven/is_dunyasi_bugun_yeni_ Modern, on the other hand, begins its narrative roughly bir_rekor_icin_kapisacak.html. where the Pera Museum leaves of, focusing on the collection of modern and contemporary Turkish art from after 1923 until the present day. Te ferce rivalry in the auction room pointed to an uncertainty within Turkey’s national narrative: at what point did Turkey become modern? Did Osman Hamdi’s painting belong with the pre-Ottoman era relics and European-style Orientalist paintings from the nineteenth century or among the Republic’s pioneering modern and contemporary artworks? And why were Turkey’s cultural institutions wrestling with the implications of this narrative in 2004, almost a century after the painting was completed? By engaging in an aggressive and public bidding war, both museums confrmed Te Tortoise Trainer’s status as a national treasure of Turkish painting, as something akin 2 to “the Turkish Mona Lisa.” However, its ultimate inclusion as a highlight in the Pera Museum’s collection of largely

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 European Orientalist paintings weakened this widely held 3 For more on Osman Hamdi’s myth and pointed to an ironic imparity: Te Tortoise Train- biography, see Wendy M.K. er’s prestige as a pinnacle of Turkish art is both augmented Ottoman Painting: Reflec- Shaw, and eclipsed by its status as a work of art mired in the tions of Western Art from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish European signs and signifers of Orientalist artistic practice. Republic (London & New York: Similarly, the painting’s creator, Osman Hamdi (1842-1910), Tauris, 2011). had made a considerable impact in the Empire during his 4 lifetime, mainly due to his administrative roles as founder of Historians often assume that the Sanayi-i Nefse Mektebi (School of Fine Arts) in 1882 Osman Hamdi trained with and as director of the Müze-i Hümayun (Imperial Museum), Jean-Léon Gérôme. However, as 3 has been emphasized by Vasıf beginning in 1887. However, as an artist, his acclaim Kortun in a 1987 article, Osman came from the West. Osman Hamdi shaped his painting tech- Hamdi’s name cannot be found niques with the French Orientalist painters Gustave Bou- on any student lists from the painting studio of Gérôme. langer and possibly Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Kortun acknowledges the possi- Beaux-Arts in Paris and produced his paintings primarily for 4 bility of the two men intersect- European markets. ing, but Osman Hamdi’s position as Gérôme’s student cannot be Te fate of Te Tortoise Trainer and the reputation of confirmed. Vasıf Kortun, “Osman its creator closely mirror the uncertainty regarding the Hamdi Üzerine Yeni Notlar,” West’s role in shaping the modern Turkish republic and, by [“New Notes on Osman Hamdi”] 41 (May 1987): Tarih ve Toplum association, the changing image and status of the late 25–26. Ottoman past in the Turkish national narrative. Whether during the Ottoman Empire’s demise and its rapid rebirth 5 My method of approach is as the Turkish Republic in 1923, or, beginning in 2002, with informed by anthropologist Igor the Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s conservative Kopytoff and his essay on the reengagement with Turkey’s Ottoman heritage—from the cultural biography of things: “a culturally informed economic late Ottoman era until today—modernism in Turkey contin- biography of an object would ues to negotiate how both “European-ness” and “Otto- look at it as a culturally con- man-ness” defne and undermine its “Turkish-ness.” Tis structed entity, endowed with culturally specific meanings essay argues that Te Tortoise Trainer’s trajectory exposes and classified and reclassi- profound shifts in historical assessments of the fnal days fied into culturally constituted of the Ottoman Empire—most recently in its transformation categories.” Igor Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biography of Things: from the “sick man of Europe,” to an Empire actively en- 5 Commoditization as Process,” gaged with modern technologies and new ideologies. in The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Per- spective , ed. Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- sity Press, 1986), 68.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 I. UNEVEN CURRENCY 6 Osman Hamdi painted a second, slightly altered, version of 6 Tortoise Trainer The Osman Hamdi completed Te Tortoise Trainer in 1906. in 1907, which Painted four years before his death in 1910, the 87 × 47 inch is now in a private collection. It was on view in Turkey at the elongated canvas depicts a fgure, standing slightly bent Sakıp Sabancı Museum in 2009. beneath a blue and gold tiled archway, overlooking a window. In the 1907 version, there are Osman Hamdi painted his own likeness as the tortoise six tortoises instead of five, an additional inscription panel next trainer, thus removing the standard three-piece suit he would to the arch, and changes in the wear daily to the ofce and stepping into the cotton draping dervi ş facial features. 7 of a mystical Suf derviş. He is clad in a fowing red garment, 7 with an araqiyya headpiece atop his pate, and yellow-dyed Osman Hamdi often positioned 8 goatskin slippers, which cradle his dry and cracked heels. A himself as the subject of his nakkare, or small kettle drum, hangs down on his back, work. Paintings in which he uses his likeness are, for example, giving him the same shelled silhouette of the fve tortoises, Ab-i Hayat Ce şmesi (“Fountain who munch on shreds of lettuce scattered at his feet. He of Life,” 1904), currently in the stands lost in thought, clutching a ney in his hands, reluctant Istanbul Archaeological Muse- ums collection, and Şehzade to put it to his lips to play. Te Arabic inscription above his Türbesinde Dervi ş (“The Dervi head reads, “Closeness to the beloved, healing to the heart” Inside the Prince’s Tomb,” 1908), ş and the architectural décor suggests the scene takes place in currently held by the Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversit- one of the upper-story chambers of Bursa’s Yeşil Camii esi İRHM collection. (“Green Mosque”). Te stones and tile work around the arch are beginning to crumble and lose their luster—a possible 8 An araqiyya is a flattish sign that the religious aura of the building is slowly becom- skullcap commonly worn by ing attached to the past rather than the present. dervishes. In the painting, the araqiyya Te Ottoman Empire’s uneven development, as it has a destar sash, wrapped around it. “The, or branched in divergent directions in the late nineteenth Tortoise Trainer,” accessed century under the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876– November 20, 2013, http:// 1909), resonates with the themes of the painting. Abdülha- en.peramuzesi.org.tr/Artwork/ The-Tortoise-Trainer/92/15. mid attempted to insulate the Empire from Christian incursion by encouraging a pan-Islamic policy to provide 9 a unifying force that would both imitate and rival the nation- Abdülhamid’s ascension to 9 power came amidst debates alist movements developing in Europe. However, the concerning the religious valid- Empire simultaneously opened its doors to European mate- ity of a constitutional govern- rial culture and modernization beginning with the period ment. His desire to institute pan-Islamism came from this of reform initiated by the Tanzimat laws under the environment: “In the face of earlier Sultan Abdülmecid in 1839, and through the acquisi- the double challenge of the tion of European inventions, such as the railroad and empowered State and Western penetration, the modern Salafi creed posited the rationality of Islam as it was practised by the forefathers (al-salaf) and the fundamental unity of the faith.” Itzchak Weismann and Fruma Zachs, Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regeneration: Studies in Honour of Butrus Abu-Manneb (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005), 69. Also see Weismann & Zachs, 22-31 and Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains : Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire , 1876-1909 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998), 3–8.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 10 photography. Furthermore, the Empire’s participation in 10 Tanzimat can be literally the Crimean War (1853-56) incurred high costs and impelled 11 translated as “orderings,” but the Empire to take its frst ofcial foreign loan in 1854. it is often loosely translated Abdülhamid consolidated his power with autocratic zeal as “modernizing” or “western- reforms izing.” The Tanzimat and used Islam as a political tool, all the while stitching his began in 1839 in an effort by theş it Empire to Europe in new ways, both ideologically and foreign minister, Mustafa Re fnancially. Osman Hamdi’s tortoise trainer, caught some- Paşa, to make changes that would bring the Empire closer where between a nostalgia for the past and a yearning for to “Western Civilization” and change as he gazes out the window of the deteriorating create easier lines of communi- mosque, refects this unstable climate. cation to Europe on economic, political, and cultural lines. For Art historians have aptly noted the correspondence of reforms examples of Tanzimat Osman Hamdi’s artistic practice to the French Orientalists’ in government organization and repetitive use of anachronistic objects and photographic the development of new laws, see the chapters “Introduction” mock-ups, alongside their penchant for realism. Osman and “The Dialectic of Law Hamdi, however, presents a challenge to Linda Nochlin’s and Infringement” in Wendy M.K. vigorous argument that the techniques of Orientalist paint- Shaw, Possessors and Pos- sessed: Museums, Archaeology, ing must be read as perpetuating the West’s negative vision 12 and the Visualization of History of the Orient. Although Osman Hamdi lived in Europe, in the Late Ottoman Empire he was never natively European, and the heart of the Otto- (Berkeley: University of Califor- nia Press, 2003). Also, see Ebru man Empire, in present-day Turkey, never was colonized. Boyar, Ottomans, Turks and As a result, scholars, such as Ussama Makdisi and the Balkans: Empire Lost, Rela- Ahmet Ersoy have conjured the term “Ottoman Oriental- tions Altered (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2007). ism” in order to describe how the attitudes of Orientalism were adopted by an elite group of Ottomans, such as 11 13 The Political Osman Hamdi, in the late nineteenth century. According Murat Birdal, Economy of Ottoman Public to Makdisi, the Tanzimat laws, “created a notion of the Debt: Insolvency and European pre-modern within the empire in a manner akin to the way Financial Control in the Late , Library European colonial administrators represented their colo- Nineteenth Century 14 of Ottoman Studies: 18 (London: nial subjects.” Nineteenth-century Ottoman nostalgia oper- Tauris Academic Studies; New ated as a way to access a refned notion of a desirable and York: Distributed in the USA distant Ottoman-Islamic past in order to both bolster by Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 6. the image of a distinguished past and underscore the trans- 12 formations occurring in the modern present. Tus, Oriental- I reference Linda Nochlin’s ism, which explicitly acknowledged the West as the beacon essay, “The Imaginary Orient,”Art in which first appeared in of progress and the East as the home of backwardness, America in May 1983, p. 118–131 came to be one of the defning facets of Ottoman modernity. and p. 187–191. It was printed Reading Te Tortoise Trainer as an autobiographic state- in her book, The Politics of Vision , in 1989. Nochlin’s essay is inspired by Edward Said, and posits that the messages in 14 and Politics of Place: Ottoman , Orientalist paintings were racist, Makdisi, “Ottoman Orientalism,” Istanbul and British Orientalism sexist, and in the service of 769. Ersoy extends Makdisi’s ed. Zeynep Inankur, Reina Lewis, maintaining cultural and observation by arguing how this and Mary Roberts (Istanbul: Kıraç economic dominance by the anxiety manifested in the cul- Foundation, Pera Museum, 2011), colonial Western powers. tural practices of the elite, 146. Orientalism Edward W Said, resulting in a “rising antiquarian (New York: Vintage Books, 1979). urge among certain men of the Tanzimat to salvage, collect, and 13 display objects, costumes, and Ussama Makdisi, “Ottoman paraphernalia dating back to the The American His- periods.” Ahmet Orientalism,” pre- Tanzimat 107, no. 3 (2002): torical Review Ersoy, “Osman Hamdi Bey and 768–796 and Ersoy, “Osman the Historiophile Mood: Oriental- Hamdi Bey and the Historiophile ist Vision and the Romantic Mood.” Sense of the Past in Late Otto- The Poetics man Culture,” in Ari !'$

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 ment, as the curators at the Pera Museum currently do, the 16 Shaw, Ottoman Painting meaning of the piece can be connected to Osman Hamdi’s , 72. role as an arts administrator, as a treatise about the struggle 17 to teach the importance of the arts to the “laggardly” constit- Ibid., 66.

uents of the Empire: “Te dervish is to train these thick- 18 shelled, laggardly tortoises not by using force, but rather by There are two early references 15 to The Tortoise Trainer playing the ney and nakkare, namely through art.” made by non-Ottomans. In 1911, an Amer- Te Tortoise Trainer originally garnered little attention ican named Lucy Garnett men- in the Ottoman Empire. Bypassing any public display in tions “The Tortoise Charmer” Istanbul, the painting travelled northwest for its debut in the as one of Osman Hamdi’s most successful paintings, in a brief 1906 Paris Salon as L’Homme aux tortues (“Man with Tor- obituary-like paragraph on the toises”) and, in the following year, it journeyed farther north artist. Adolphe Thalasso also 16 for an exhibition in Berlin in 1907. Such an itinerary was mentions the painting by name in his 1911 text, entitled typical for works by Osman Hamdi, which were either exhib- the Ottomans: Turkish PaintersArt of 17 ited abroad or never displayed at all. When the paint- Lucy Mary Jane Garnett, . of the Ottomans Turkey ing was shown to audiences in Europe, it did not generate any (New York: Scribner’s, 1911), 256. Adolphe documented critical or popular response and failed to Thalasso, Osmanlı Sanatı: Türki- ye’nin Ressamları sell during exhibition. Tus, in the early twentieth century, , vol. 1, Kültür the sensation of the Turkish art market in 2004 passed A. Ş. Sanat Dizisi; (Antalya: A. Yıldız; İstanbul Büyük şehir Bele- quietly into the hands of Osman Hamdi’s daughter, stirring up diyesi, 2008). 18 little controversy as it went. Te Tortoise Trainer did not appear publically in 19 The editors of the journal dedi- the Ottoman Empire until 1912, two years after the painter’s cated the issue to the legacy death, when it was reproduced in black and white in the of their “past master, the late, eleventh issue of Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti Gazetisi honourable Hamdi Bey” and in addition to the article, repro- (“Journal for the Society of Ottoman Painters”)—an issue 19 duced a series of eight of his expressly devoted to Osman Hamdi. Te editors of the paintings at the back of the journal, who were mostly teachers at the Fine Arts Academy, issue. The issue included the reproduction of explained their desire to generate a demand for the arts The Tortoise Trainer , or as it was captioned within the Empire. To that end, Osman Hamdi became their in this printing, as Kaplum- bağ tragic hero, the martyr who fought for the proliferation of a Mürebbesi , “The Tortoise Nanny.” The caption also read, the arts, only to go unnoticed as an artist himself: “From the collection of the Unfortunately, in our lands painting has no currency, generous Lady Leyla.” Leyla demand, or market… Each of the late Hamdi Bey works was one of Osman Hamdi’s daughters residing in Istanbul. presented in this issue… adorns a royal palace or Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti European museum, while the only memory of Hamdi Gazetesi , 25 March 1912 Issue. 20 Bey in his own land consists of a silent tomb. Reprinted in Yaprak Zihnio Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti ğlu, Gazetesi, 1911-1914: Güncel- 15 leştirilmi ş Basım , 1. basım., vol. “The Tortoise Trainer.” Pera 13, Sahaftan Seçmeler Dizisi; 13 Müzesi website. This inter- (İstanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2007). pretation on the Pera Museum website is perhaps culled from 20 remarks on the painting by Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti Wendy Shaw in Gazetesi Possessors and , 25 March 1912 Issue. Possessed , 124. Edhem Eldem uncovers further inspiration for the painting from a print in a French travel magazine depict- ing a Japanese practice of tortoise training. Eldem, “Ressam- lar, Kaplumba ğalar, Tarihciler…”

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 Tus, while Osman Hamdi’s paintings lived in European 21 Latinizing the previously Perso- institutions, they perished in Ottoman lands. Te 1912 issue Arabic Ottoman alphabet, ban- of the Journal described the imbalance between Osman ning public displays of religious Hamdi’s overlooked painting career and his prestige as an arts affiliation, and establishing a constitution are more exam- administrator, highlighting how Osman Hamdi’s paintings ples of the abrupt changes had yet to earn great value on their own—emblematic, in instituted by the new govern- their opinion, of the fate of the arts in the Ottoman Empire. ment. Some of the more severe practices instituted by the Te Journal attempted to generate enthusiasm for new government were the ban- Osman Hamdi’s paintings in 1912, during the tenuous years ning of religious practice in of revolts and reforms leading to the abolishment of the government, raiding of Sufi lodges, the displacement of reli- Ottoman Sultanate. Yet, decades after Turkey became gious artifacts from their ori- a Republic under the legendary military general Mustafa ginal settings into museums, and Kemal Atatürk, Osman Hamdi remained dissociated forcing the Kurdish population to teach Turkish in their schools. from the history of Turkish painting, perhaps even further removed due to his role in the now maligned Ottoman government, his penchant for painting historical Ottoman- Islamic themes, and his close association with European painting practice. When Turkey became a nation state in 1923, the “Kemalist” government instituted many of its own modernizing reforms, which emphasized Atatürk’s fair for adapting and folding western European and Ameri- can policies into an emphatically Turkish regime. Separ- ating Islamic law from religious law, establishing nation-wide criteria for early education, and even broadcasting a Tur- kish language translation of the Qur’an over the radio are 21 but a few examples. Atatürk sought to create a modern Turkey untethered to its Ottoman predecessors and informed by western ideals, yet still undeniably “Turkish.” As an acute example of the early Republican position, Nurullah Berk’s texts from the 1950s on the history of Turkish modern art illustrate why Osman Hamdi’s Te Tortoise Trainer remained insignifcant within the Kemalist push for a modern Turkish ethos. In his canonical text, Modern Painting and Sculpture in Turkey, Berk worked to dissociate the arts in Turkey from the Islamic arts more generally (attempting to dilute the rich Ottoman-Islamic past of the Turkic people), and he argued that Turkish art attained

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 its own form of expression in the twentieth century by 22 Nurullah Berk, Modern Painting combining modern trends in European art with seemingly and Sculpture in Turkey trans-historic Turkish traditions that he concocted. To Turkish Press, Broadcasting (Turkey: be a specifcally “Turkish” artist and create work that speaks and Tourist Dept, 1954), 3 & 23. Nurullah. in an authentic Turkish voice, Berk insisted that the artist must neither harbor too great an attachment to the “school 23 22 of Moslem Art” or the “École de Paris.” Berk does mention Osman Hamdi by name, but only Tese admissions reveal some of the reasons why Berk in reference to his position as omitted Osman Hamdi from the pantheon of modern the director of the Fine Arts Turkish painters, despite beginning his survey with artists Academy. 23 who painted as early as 1900. Osman Hamdi was indeed 24 attached to the École in Paris and his artistic genius was Nurullah Berk as quoted in İpek assimilated into European contexts, since his canvases were Duben, Türk Resmi ve Ele risi: 1880–1950 şti- never displayed in the Ottoman realm. In a separate , Sanat-Estetik: 4 (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgu Üniver- text, Berk accused Osman Hamdi for staying in the shadow sitesi Yayınları, 2007), 41. of Gérôme, for confning himself to more traditionally “near Eastern” subjects, and for failing to create a style of his 24 own. Furthermore, Osman Hamdi continually depicted Islamic rituals, objects, and attire in his works. For Berk, Turkish art had its own genius and character, which was neither recognizable as Ottoman-Islamic, nor purely attached to European art modes. Osman Hamdi could not be a spokesperson for this type of image in 1954. Osman Hamdi’s paintings, like the Ottoman Empire and its apprehensive engagements with Europeanization, were severed from the story of how Turkey became modern.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 II. INTEREST RISING 25 İpek Duben, “Osman Hamdi ve Orientalism,” [“Osman Hamdi Tarih ve However tangential Te Tortoise Trainer was to discussions and Orientalism”] of Turkish painting in the frst half of the twentieth century, Toplum , no. 40 (April 1987): 28. Turkish art historians and wealthy collectors displayed a 26 surge of interest in Osman Hamdi’s paintings beginning in Vasıf Kortun, in a heated the 1980s—due to intellectual and politico-economic devel- response to Duben, drew ample comparisons between Osman opments in Turkey’s rapidly shifting cultural topography. Hamdi and European Oriental- Te 1980 military coup, which was only the most recent in a ists: “Just like the European series of government takeovers by the staunchly Kemalist Orientalists, Osman Hamdi also assembled Arabic costumes military, also prompted a rethinking of the foundations with Ottoman chinawares and of the republic as it exposed the extent to which the prom- wooden Seljuk Gates... Like ised democratic ideals of Kemalism had yet to take hold. the other Orientalists, by using photographs in his process, Te publication of Edward Said’s book Orientalism in he engendered an ahistorical 1978 and Linda Nochlin’s essay, “Te Imaginary Orient” and artificial depiction of the in 1983 prompted a sea change in the ways academics across East. [...] Osman Hamdi’s ‘reformed Orientalism’ is not a variety of disciplines interpreted relationships between at the level to insult Oriental- “the Occident” and “the Orient.” Said and Nochlin’s widely- ism.” Kortun, “Osman Hamdi read texts stimulated a revival of Osman Hamdi in art Üzerine Yeni Notlar.” historical literature, as he was a rare (and the most promi- 27 nent) “Ottoman Orientalist” painter of the late nine- Zeynep Çelik, “Speaking back teenth century and his work was enigmatic within the frame- to the Orientalist Discourse,” in Orientalism’s Interlocu- work Said and Nochlin provided. Despite his training in tors: Painting, Architecture, how to paint in the academic realist style of the French , ed. Jill Beaulieu Photography Orientalist school, scholars debated his categorization as and Mary Roberts (Durham (USA): Duke University Press, an Orientalist painter, since he himself hailed from the

2002), 202. Orient. In!'' an essay from 1987, İpek Duben asked the ques- tion seemingly on everybody’s mind: “Was Osman Hamdi 25 a real Orientalist?” Despite few outspoken voices suggesting that Osman

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its own form of expression in the twentieth century by 22 Nurullah Berk, Modern Painting combining modern trends in European art with seemingly and Sculpture in Turkey trans-historic Turkish traditions that he concocted. To Turkish Press, Broadcasting (Turkey: be a specifcally “Turkish” artist and create work that speaks and Tourist Dept, 1954), 3 & 23. T h i s r e a l l y h e l p s . I r e a l l y a p p r e c i a t e y o u t a k iNurullah. n g t h e in an authentic Turkish voice, Berk insisted that the artist t i m e t o t a l k t h i s o v e r . M a y b e i n t h e n e x t c o u p l e w e e k s must neither harbor too great an attachment to the “school 23 22 Okay, no worries, just keep I canof Moslem give youArt” or a the call. “École I’m de Paris.” still trying to ﬁgureBerk out does mention Osman Hamdi by name, but only me posted. Until you give me my schedule Tese admissions and see reveal when some I can of the get reasons out why to Berk Geneva. But a c a l l , n o w o r r i e s . W e c a n a r r a n g e s o m e t h i n g a n d in reference to his position as h o p e fomitted u l l y iOsman t w i lHamdi l b e from s o o nthe . pantheon T h e s u m of m emodern r a r t f e s t i v athe l sdirector a r eof the Fine Arts discuss quietly between four eyes. aboutTurkish to start, painters, so despite I’ll beginning be over his survey there with at artists some point.Academy. I f y o u w a n t t o s e e t h e d i f f e r e n t p o s s i b i l i t i e s , i f 23 who painted as early as 1900. Osman Hamdi was indeed 24 y o u w a n t t o u s e a n o f f s h o r e c o m p a n y , t h e f i d u c i a r y attached to the École in Paris and his artistic genius was Nurullah Berk as quoted in 13 İpek service, or not. No worries at all. assimilated into European contexts, since his canvases were Duben, Türk Resmi ve Ele risi: 1880–1950 şti- never displayed in the Ottoman realm. In a separate , Sanat-Estetik: 4 (İstanbul: İstanbul Bilgu Üniver- text, Berk accused Osman Hamdi for staying in the shadow sitesi Yayınları, 2007), 41. of Gérôme, for confning himself to more traditionally “near Eastern” subjects, and for failing to create a style of his 24 own. Furthermore, Osman Hamdi continually depicted Islamic rituals, objects, and attire in his works. For Berk, Great, thankTurkish you art had its own genius and character, which was neither recognizable as Ottoman-Islamic, nor purely I really appreciate it. attached to European art modes. Osman Hamdi could not be a spokesperson for, this type of image in 1954. Osman Hamdi’s paintings, like the Ottoman Empire and its apprehensive engagements with Europeanization, were severed from the story of how Turkey became modern.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 that Osman Hamdi chose to depict fully-clothed models, 28 Ibid., 204. rather than fantasies of irate despots or nude harem girls, often positioned his models as active rather than passive 29 agents, and presented Islam as a religion which encouraged Other art historians, such as Holly Edwards, Sibel Bozdogan, doubt and intellectual debate. For example, in İki Müzisyen Wendy M.K. Shaw, and Fin- Kız (“Two Musician Girls,” 1880), Osman Hamdi trans- barr Barry Flood followed Çelik’s formed the typically half-naked, lackadaisical odalisques of example in their own assessments of the Ottoman master’s Orientalist paintings into two young women engaged in a work, allowing this interpre- music lesson. Çelik thus concludes that Osman Hamdi’s tation of Osman Hamdi to domi- scenes from the Orient, “provide acute and persistent cri- nate in academic discussion. 28 tiques of mainstream Orientalist paintings.” In her 30 Selim Deringil, words, Osman Hamdi resists the dominant interpretation The Well-Protected of Orientalist painting and “speaks back” to Orientalist Domains , 3. 29 discourse. Comparing Çelik’s image of a strong-willed, resilient Osman Hamdi to the reassessments of the late Ottoman Empire from noted historian Selim Deringil, reveals how closely the narratives of Osman Hamdi and Turkish modernism come together toward the end of the twentieth century. Assessing Kemalist characterizations of the late Ottoman Em- pire as a failed attempt at modernization, or worse, as entirely deaf to the changes in Western Europe, Deringil provided an insightful summation of Abdülhamid’s Empire. In his argument, the administrators in the late Ottoman period were curious about European models of modernization, but isolated by their desire to remain an Empire, both powerful and frail: It is my contention that the Hamidian period represents a critical point in time when, contrary to the standard view that the Ottoman Empire closed in on itself during this period, the only Muslim world empire did in fact succeed in joining the modern community of nations, 30 albeit as a grudgingly accepted poor relation. Indeed, the late Ottoman Empire eventually broke into several nation states, giving way to European ideals of political organization. Tus, the late Ottoman government, according to Deringil, should not be shunned as a sickly regime that

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 prevented political progress or resisted cultural and scien- 31 an, Modernism Sibel Bozdo ğ tifc modernization. and Nation Building: Turkish In his book-length study, Deringil explained that Architectural Culture in the Early despite the Islamic conservatism and political rigidity of Republic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), 39. Abdülhamid’s reign, the winds of change sweeping back and forth across the European continent included the 32 late Ottoman Empire, and the post-Enlightenment human- The Turkish neo-liberal experi- ence takes its starting point as ist desire to create and acquire knowledge touched Otto- the January 24 program in man administrators and subjects as well. Sibel Boz-doğan’s 1980, aided by the World Bank reading of Osman Hamdi’s paintings, akin to Çelik’s inter- and the International Monetary ş, “Temporary Fund. Ziya Öni pretation, echoed Deringil’s approach to the late Ottoman Star or Emerging Tiger? Turkey’s period: Recent Economic Performance New In the paintings that he [Osman Hamdi] did in the 1890s in a Global Context,” , no. 39 Perspectives on Turkey and early 1900s, we fnd depicted a diferent, rational, (2008): 50. and dynamic East where people—including women— stood tall, read books, debated, traveled about, and engaged in productive activities: in other words a Muslim society that was in search of knowledge, science, 31 and progress. In Osman Hamdi’s paintings, like Te Tortoise Trainer or Two Musician Girls, Bozdoğan saw “knowledge, science, and progress,” the central tenets of the European enlightenment. According to Bozdoğan and Deringil respectively, Osman Hamdi and the Ottoman Empire did not merely parrot Euro- pean ideals at a time when their own political currency was waning, but rather used their associations with Europe to maximum advantage, modernizing alongside the countries that surrounded them. Tis renegotiation of the Ottoman past, emphasized in historical literature and paralleled in the ardent art historical appraisals of Osman Hamdi’s paintings, coincided with drastic changes in Turkey’s political and economic outlook. In 1980, Turkey could no longer remain aloof from the international market or the pressing need for cultural 32 and touristic exchange. Spurred on by economic problems with the internally-oriented development model it had subscribed to for years and the rising economic success of

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 South East Asian countries, Turkish state elites intervened 33 The Turkish neo-liberal turn can by rapidly instituting liberal economic practices and advan- be seen as a response to the 33 cing a notion of Turkish capitalism. Liberalization of unprecedented economic suc- the economy often leads to a liberalization of society, and cess of the “Asian Tigers”: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Istanbul’s urban, cultural, and tourism centers experienced Singapore. Thomas Marois, an equally proportionate jolt of activity. Te government “Emerging Market Bank Rescues passed the “Law for the Encouragement of Tourism” in 1982, in an Era of Finance-Led Neolib- eralism: A Comparison of Mexico the International Istanbul Biennial launched in 1987, and a and Turkey,” Review of Interna- large-scale market for the sale of artwork within Turkey also tional Political Economy 18, no. 2 emerged in this period—evinced, for example, by the 1981 (2011): 173.

opening of the Artam Antik A.Ş. auction house (where Te 34 34 Tortoise Trainer was later sold). The “Law for the Encouragement Eager to contribute to the cultural sector and perhaps, of Tourism” is available online at the Turkish Ministry of Culture even more importantly, to leave a lasting public legacy, and Tourism website, “Law For Turkey’s aging frst generation of industrialists provided the The Encouragement Of Tour- seed money for Istanbul’s museum boom in the early 2000s. ism,” accessed November 13, 2013, http://www.kultur.gov.tr/ Te two museums fghting for Te Tortoise Trainer in the EN,33040/law-for-the-encou November 2004 auction are a part of this history: the Istan- agement-of-tourism.html. The bul Modern, whose permanent collection of republican Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and Topkapı Palace are but three era painting and sculpture came from the collections of well-known examples that had Bülent and Oya Eczacıbaşı opened in December 2004, and work done on them following the Pera Museum, established by Suna and İnan Koç, this period of urban renewal in Istanbul. debuted in June 2005. Even before their grand openings, the Istanbul Modern and the Pera Museum had clear directives 35 to make sure an Osman Hamdi painting would be on display Reminiscent of Eric Hobsbawm’s axiom that “all invented tradi- for their very frst visitors. Building institutions to display tions, so far as possible, use Turkey’s artistic past called for a reinterpretation of the history as a legitimator of action Ottoman past as the museum owners and the curatorial staf and cement of group cohesion,” the curatorial desire to include worked to put together collections which would form the 35 Osman Hamdi’s painting as an stories they wished to tell. Osman Hamdi, now considered linchpin in the museums’ newly a resistant force to Orientalist discourse and a symbolic developed histories of mod ism suggests the painting’s ern- fgure of the late Ottoman Empire, who engaged with but was relevance in contributing to never overcome by European sentiments, proved to be a the Turkish national imaginary critical part of each of their narratives. at the turn of the twenty-first century. Eric Hobsbawm, “Inventing Traditions,” in Invention of Tradition The , ed. by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 12.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 III. MARKET VALUE 36 Öni ş, “Temporary Star or Emerg- ing Tiger?,” 53. Economically speaking, liberalization creates winners and losers. Due to a combination of internal politics and foreign 37 The painting had been in the policies, the benefciaries of neo-liberalism in Turkey, the possession of Saim Birkök, a early industrialists and the successive generation of entrepre- wealthy shipping magnate from neurs, could not maintain their success for long. Turkey’s the Black Sea region, when the art historian Mustafa Cezar frst crisis of the neo-liberal era hit in 1994. Another crisis located it in 1969. Whether the followed six years later, in 2000, but the deepest blow arrived painting had been sold or given in 2001. Te “2001 fnancial crisis,” as it became known, to Birkök by Osman Hamdi’s daughter is unknown. After the prompted the government’s adoption of more stringent death of Birkök, the painting fnancial rules and regulations, creating a break between the was supposed to be transferred unstable, infation-prone atmosphere of the 1990s, and the into a Foundation established by his will, but somehow it fscally stable environment of the post-2001 recovery 36 ended up in the hands of Aksoy, period. It is also the event that thrust Osman Hamdi’s Te perhaps through a private sale. Tortoise Trainer into the public eye. “‘Kaplumba ğa Terbiyecisi’ Tablosu Bir Ünyelinin Evin- Erol Aksoy, president of the İktisat Bank and thereby den Çıkmı ştı,” [“The Tortoise the associated seller of Osman Hamdi’s Te Tortoise Trainer Trainer” Came Out of a House in , November 8, at auction, lost everything in 2001. Known as more than Ünye] Ünye Kent 2010, http://www.unyekent.com/ a fnancial impresario, Aksoy had penetrated the cultural konu/62/-8220kaplumbaga-ter sector by creating the private TV station, “Show,” and biyecisi-8221-tablosu-bir-un building an impressive art collection with his wife İnci Aksoy, yelinin-evinden-cikmisti. Also,ğa Oğuz Erten, “‘Kaplumba editor of Marie Claire fashion magazine in Turkey. Included İzinde,” Hürriyet Terbiyecisi’nin in their collection was Te Tortoise Trainer, which Aksoy had Aile , November 1, 2013, http:// bought in the late 1980s or early 1990s and eventually www.hurriyetaile.com/eglence/ tv-magazin/unlu-isimlerin-kolek transferred into the İktisat bank’s collection through the 37 siyon-tutkulari_28747.html. shadowy sphere of the private art market. When the market crashed in 2001, Aksoy’s Bank had little cushion to recover. 38 As of October 2013, Aksoy was He was not only forced into bankruptcy, but was also found 38 sentenced to 12.5 years in prison guilty of embezzlement. Te Savings Deposits Insurance on charges of embezzlement. Fund (Tasarruf Mevduatı Sigorta Fonu, TMSF) seized “Erol Aksoy’a hapis cezası,” [“Erol Aksoy to be Given a both the bank’s and Aksoy’s assets, including the art collec- CNNTurk. 39 Prison Punishment”] tion, which was to be sold at auction. Once a “golden com , October 9, 2013, http:// boy” in Turkey, Aksoy sustained substantial losses and in www4.cnnturk.com/2013/turkiye/ 10/09/erol.aksoya.hapis.cezasi/ the process Te Tortoise Trainer, one of the most-discussed 40 726601.0/. Turkish paintings, was fnally released into public view. Te economic crisis also led to major changes in the 39 Despite the Ministry of Culture’s best efforts to keep the collec- 40 tion, the treasury budget could ğu’ not absorb the costs and the “1980’lerin ‘altın çocu works had to be sold at auction. Erol Aksoy iflas etti,” [“Erol When the collection went into Aksoy, the ‘Golden Boy’ of the state’s hands for an interim the 1980s, goes bankrupt”] , November 24, period, they attempted to draw Yeniça ğ Gazetisi some “public benefit” from 2012, http://www.yenicag the scenario by exhibiting the gazetesi.com.tr/yg/habergoster. collection at the Atlas Passage php?haber=75936. Istanbul State Fine Arts Gallery in 2003. “Aksoy koleksiyonu satı şta,” [“Aksoy's Collection on , Sale”] Radikal – Internet Baskisi October 1, 2004.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 political landscape, as the AKP, the center-right conservative 41 The AKP virtually wiped out the party with Islamic roots, found its way into the political three parties that had previously 41 spotlight in 2002. Along with the AKP’s grassroots initia- shared power, as the electorate tives within central and eastern Anatolia, and despite its attributed the responsibility for the economy’s mismanage- supposed incompatibility with the secular Kemalist ideology, ment to the coalition government. Ziya Öni the AKP enjoyed a comfortable majority of the vote in 2002. ş, “The Triumph With successive victories in the 2007 and 2011 elections, the of Conservative Globalism: The Political Economy of the AKP AKP continues to champion a “Turkish Islamic” identity, Era,” Turkish Studies 13, no. 2 strongly linked to its Ottoman heritage, even laying claim to (2012): 138. continuing “Ottoman liberalism,” rather than neo-liberalism, 42 42 in its economic policies. Yıldız Atasoy, Islam’s Marriage Cultural initiatives funded by the AKP, such as the with Neoliberalism: State Trans- formation in Turkey opening of the 1453 Panorama Museum to commemorate the (Basingstoke [England]; New York: Palgrave siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, Macmillan, 2009), 34, 70. Atasoy speak to the party’s rhetorical emphasis on propelling the discusses “Ottoman liberalism,” 43 greatness of the Ottoman past into the present. In creating in chapter 2, entitled “The Allure of the West.” He analyzes the this linearity between Ottoman times and modern times, Turkish-Islamic remaking of AKP politicians also seek to refute the close associations the state in chapter 3, entitled with Europe promoted during the Kemalist period. Te “Turkish Islam: Unthinking Kemalism?” success of such enterprises may be questioned, however, as the recent 43 44 “Gezi park protests” attest. In cutting to the core of much “Türkiye’nin Ilk Panaromik Müz- esinin Açılı anxiety over AKP power, sociologist Yıldız Atasoy states the şını Erdo ğan Yaptı,” ["Erdo ğan Opens Turkey's main issue: “At stake here is the transformation of the First Panorama Museum"] Milli- Kemalist state,” which, as previously discussed, positioned it- yet , accessed November 13, 2013, http://www.milliyet.com.tr/ self as completely dissociated from an imperial, Ottoman, fotogaleri/37352--turkiye-nin- and Islamic past, and more in line with European political and ilk-panaromik-muzesinin-acilis 45 secular values. When the Artam Antik A.Ş. auction house ini-erdogan-yapti/1.

ofered Te Tortoise Trainer for sale in 2004, it was amidst the 44 nation-wide renegotiation of the modern past heralded by The Gezi protests in Turkey the socio-political changes of the AKP leadership. broke out following Prime Minis- ter Erdo ğan’s desire to recreate Tus, at the turn of the new millennium, both the aca- Ottoman era barracks as the demic, secular leftists and the political, religiously-minded site of a new shopping mall in rightists questioned the Turkish national narrative as a public park in Istanbul. “Park Protests Spread across Tur- it related to the fnal years of the Ottoman Empire. When key,” BBC , June 1, 2013, sec. Prime Minister Erdoğan made political speeches or gave Europe, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ interviews about re-appropriating the “Ottoman spirit” to news/world-europe-22741644.

45 Atasoy, Islam’s Marriage with Neoliberalism , 9.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 46 “use what was beautiful about the Empire today,” one 46 Cinar Kiper, “Sultan Erdogan: might also recall historian Selim Deringil’s optimistic words Turkey’s Rebranding Into the The about the late Ottoman Empire under Abdülhamid, as a New, Old Ottoman Empire,” , April 5, 2013, http:// critical period when the Empire opened up to the “modern Atlantic 47 www.theatlantic.com/interna community of nations.” Although revisionist academic tional/archive/2013/04/sultan- engagements with the Ottoman past and popular and erdogan-turkeys-rebranding-in- political Ottomania exist in separate registers, they refect a to-the-new-old-ottoman-em pire/274724/. broader cultural tendency of the past several decades. Seeing the late Ottoman Empire as a time of active engage- 47 ment with modern technologies and ideologies coming from Deringil, The Well-Protected Do- mains , 3. Deringil elaborates Europe, such as the implementation of railroads and the his point in other essays, tracing invention of quasi-nationalist traditions, accounts (at least the many “invented traditions” in part) for the bidding war that escalated between the of the Hamidian government in its quest to invoke quasi- Istanbul Modern Museum and the Pera Museum in 2004. Te nationalization while staying an classifcation of the late Ottoman era and its associated imperial power. For example, artwork could no longer be squeezed convincingly into a the use of an Ottoman coat-of- arms, on buildings and official “pre-modern” category. documents, expressed a nation- Te auction, where the sale of Osman Hamdi’s Te alistic emphasis on symbolic Tortoise Trainer to the Pera Museum afrmed its status as visual power. Selim Deringil, “The Invention of Tradition as Public the highest-priced and thus (in some circles), most highly Image in the Late Ottoman Com- valued Turkish painting in history, was the moment when Empire, 1808 to 1908,” the canvas was transformed from an intriguing painting to a parative Studies in Society and History , no. 1 (1993): 3–29. fetishized commodity. Te anthropologist Igor Kopytof advises that while engaging in creating a culturally informed 48 economic biography of an object, one must interrogate Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biogra- phy of Things,” 64. moments of change: “Such shifts and diferences in whether and when a thing is a commodity reveal a moral economy that stands behind the objective economy of visible 48 transactions.” What was the “moral economy,” or set of beliefs that were being valued and challenged during the 2004 sale of Te Tortoise Trainer? Perhaps the bruised ego and broken trajectory of Erol Aksoy and the entrepreneurial capitalists, who had believed in European neo-liberalism and had acquired great fnancial and cultural capital, refected the moral economy. Or, the moral economy could be seen through the elite intellectuals of the 1980s and 90s who

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 revisited the roots of Turkish modernism in order to 49 Daniel Miller, “Materiality: challenge the dominant ideology of Kemalism fed to them by An Introduction,” accessed their parent’s generation, convinced there was more to be November 18, 2013, http://www. learned from their expunged Ottoman ancestors. Te moral ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/ academic_staff/d_miller/mil-8. economy could have also been transmitted through the values of a new political faction with an Islamic face, setting out to prove its efectiveness in transforming Turkey into a global economic force while allowing for the rise of a Turkish Islamic identity that had been repressed since Atatürk’s founding of a decidedly secular Turkish Republic. Tis moral economy probably encompassed many more things, as well. Tunneling through the history of events leading to the sale of Te Tortoise Trainer uncovers the highly fragmented nature of the modern Turkish identity and its attitudes toward its Ottoman past and the West in its formation, both at the moment of the painting’s creation in 1906 and the moment of its sale in 2004—then and now. Daniel Miller, in his dense treatise on materiality, perhaps encapsulates the efect of an artwork’s value most succinctly: “Te more we come to believe that art is actually transcendent, the more its 49 material form is worth in dollars.” Te sale of the painting for such a large sum reveals how Te Tortoise Trainer continues to accrue value even as it may transcend under- standing. Furthermore, the sale exposed, proportionally, how high the current stakes are for the remaking of the place of late Ottoman and European modernity in the Turkish national narrative.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021 POSTSCRIPT 50 Güven, “ İş dünyası bugün yeni şacak!” bir rekor için kapı Te historic sale has yet to wane in the public consciousness. On November 27, 2011, the news source İş'te İnsan (“Work- ing People”) released an article on the eve of the auction of another Osman Hamdi painting, Huzur (“Peace,” 1904) Te article’s author, Burçak Güven, provides a list of the most famous art collectors in Turkey and the likelihood of each to walk away from the auction victorious. İş'te İnsan is a business journal, reporting on fnancial transactions, after all, and Osman Hamdi paintings, it seems, are commodities for the Turkish art collector, necessities if one is to be taken seriously in the trade. Despite Osman Hamdi’s initial popularity in European markets, the long list of collectors she supplies, notably, is only composed of Turks. “Who could be the new owner of an Osman Hamdi?” she asks. For example, “Murat Ülker, a well-known name in the exchange of modern Turkish art... with a collection valued at approximately 100 million dollars, is not yet the owner of an Osman Hamdi.” She even muses about the chances of the previously defeated Eczacıbaşı family and their Istanbul Modern Museum, hoping that “maybe this time they’ll pull it 50 of.” Te article illuminates the posthumous efect of the 2004 auction: in Turkey, one no longer owns a particular Osman Hamdi painting, one simply owns “an Osman Hamdi.” As a tangible site for the playing out of competing narratives about the role of Ottoman westernization in modern developments between the late Ottoman Empire and the early Turkish Republic, Te Tortoise Trainer journeyed from accruing little notice in the Ottoman Empire in its early life to amassing a high-priced, celebrity status in Turkey in its later years, largely due to the shifts in the economic and political fabric of Turkey since 1980. Te mystical dervish at the center of Te Tortoise Trainer, a fctionalized Osman Hamdi, stirred up a century-long conversation. Where will the dervish go next?

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00067 by guest on 29 September 2021