The Painting by Osman Hamdi on The Pera Museum

I’m very impressed when I see this painting by Osman Hamdi on the Pera Museum. When I saw the picture I tried to interpret it for myself for a long time. The objects in the picture have a meaning according to that time. Especially sufi flute, tortoises, ambiance etc. I tried to guess what they might mean but I did not have much information about that period so I could not comment too much. It is interesting for me to investigate that period and interpret the symbols accordingly. I think this picture looks more mysterious than the others. Both the color of the picture, the drawings of the figures and the name.

The Green Mosque in Bursa which in picture, considered one of the most valuable examples of Ottoman architecture and the adoption of the gods as the house of God and the place of worship. It may be that Osman Hamdi ’s turn to God in his own inner world , that he feels inner peace by worshiping God and that he feels his trust with his sense of faith. The plaster and tiles the walls of the room are a bit worn and spilled. The picture is a bearded dervish wearing a red long dress tied with a tight belt in the waist , has a turban, holding a sufi flute, standing in a semi-backward manner in an unscented and neglected room covered with blue tiles. On the ground we see five turtles in total. These turtles, who eat green leaves, are trained by dervish. First of all , it is a change that he hopes to teach by blowing and occasionally encouraging animals to prod or condemn. Unfortunately, the tortoises do not have ears to hear what because they have a thick layer of shell. The turtle, which is slow in its creation , represents "laziness" and Osman Hamdi is trying to educate these people who have acquired the philosophy of laziness. Osman Hamdi' s method of teaching turtles is music, another branch of art. This expresses the artist's love for art and his belief in the necessity of art for improvement. However, the plastered walls reflect Osman Hamdi's understanding of "society that does not want to be modernized". The color tones are shown as the combination of the green and red colors in the front panel and in pink and yellow as ornaments.

Also The blue color in blue tiles symbolize trust. Consider how the repeated designs such as walls, ornament, tiles, bricks and tortoise shells balance the natural design. The walls only managed to see a solid foundation at the bottom. Osman Hamdi, who frequently uses his own photographs of his own photographs in his figurative compositions, repeats the same technique in this picture and depicts himself in a dervish look. The Tortoise Trainer by painter Osman Hamdi who has an oriental or ethnographic subject. Osman Hamdi's work, which represent the Ottoman culture and tradition, shows a realistic approach to whole the components in this painting. Osman Hamdi used the Ottoman architecture in a realistic way, delicately detailing the details of architecture, costumes and objects that seemed to be his true theme. According to some commentators said that Osman Hamdi (Tortoise Trainer) symbolize Western , turtles symbolize Ottoman. We can interpret that turtle trainer is an Ottoman intellectual benefiting from the West and that turtles are the rooted habits of the Ottoman society. Others said that the tortoise trainer keeps the flute behind and does not use the flute to train the turtles and the fear of educating the people represented by tortoises so dervish does not run out of patience. I think this painting is an intellectual tired of trying to modernize a backward society. The fact that the objects in the picture symbolize something make the picture even more impressive. If I were an artist, title would be to ’’ The Teacher of Turtles ’’. My feelings have not changed since I started criticism.