Osman Hamdi Bey: An Ottoman Intellectual

Osman Hamdi Bey was an Ottoman intellectual who grew up during the innovative Tanzimat era. He was not only a prominent painter, but also a major actor in the process of Westernization, a multi-faceted personality who played a pioneering role and fulfilled key functions in different disciplines of culture and arts, such as archeology, museology and arts education.

This small book in homage to Osman Hamdi Bey -an individual wearing multiple hats such as archeologist, museologist, painter, commissioner of an international exhibition, playwright, mayor and protagonist of an Orientalist novel- does not claim to be an exhaustive or even completely original work. The volume focuses especially on certain details and testimonies concerning the artist's biography, shedding light on various aspects of his life, while also providing an overview of his paintings through an analysis of major works.

The book opens up a window on the main periods in Osman Hamdi Bey’s life and art, from his birth until his death on February 24, 1910, by drawing on the studies of prominent researchers such as Mustafa Cezar, Edhem Eldem and Metin And.