A European man wearing a colonial hat, sitting on a chair, is face to face with a turbaned Ottoman salesman, who is sitting on the floor. A little girl, who is a copy of her mother, watches them with great curiosity while her mother is standing silently near the old Ottoman doing the translation for her husband who is listening intently. A Richly decorated green wall, Chinese vases in the niche, tombac coffee pot, helmet, chandelier, decorated rifle and various carpets in the background are some of the examples of the richness of the East that charm the West. Two different worlds are painted head to head around the niche in the background.
"Carpet Seller" is the great Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey's unique work of art, presenting the contrast between the East and West, representing the last years of "Orientalism" which portrays the colonialism of the industrial West in the "Art of Painting".
Osman Hamdi Bey, who studied art from Gerome in Paris, painted subjects such as the dichotomy of the East and West, love and faith and life and death after he returned to his counrty. Chandeliers, lecterns, kerosene lamps, incenses and women, the East's mysticism, its sui generis tranquility and its Western identity under Eastern guise are some of his images that critique the philosophy of the "East.".
The "Two Musician Girls", (1880), portrays two young girls, who have to be self-sufficient during their presence in the harem. The attractiveness of the painting arises from the integrated construct of two girls in different positions with two different musical instruments, leaving room for different interpretations and perceptions.
Unlike prominent artists like John Fredric Lewis, Sir David Wilkie, William Holman Hunt, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Phillips, Lord Frederic Leigton, Robert Scott Lauder, Henry Willieam Pickersgill, Osman Hamdi Bey portrays an Eastern critiques of "the East".
In the orieantalist paintings, West's arrogance about "educating" the East can be discerned easily. Turtles with candles on thier back to light the gardens at celebrations during the Ottomans' famous Tulip period, which symbolizes the tranquility of the East, is a great source of inspiration for the orieantalists. Osman Hamdi Bey, who worked as an high-ranking officer in various Ottoman educational and cultural institutions, describes the production relations of the West and the East from a different perspective in his famous painting "Kaplumbaga Terbiyecisi" (Turtle-tamer). The "tamer", (Osman Hamdi), is supervising three leaves eating turtles, with reed flute in his hands, tongs on his neck and "keskul-u fikra" (lunch kit) on his back. Two other turtles are trying to reach out for the food. "Turtle-tamer" is Osman Hamdi's bleak satire on the cruelty of the Eastern govenments. What makes this paiting a masterpiece is its simplicity and inexistance of unneccesary details. The work focuses the viewer's attention on the subject through the use of light emanating from below.
The 19th century orientalists were undoubtedly more humane than their present day counterparts. The "Mystery of Harem" was the face of the transforming life style that should be respected and admired by artists like John Fredric Lewis, Sir David Wilkie, William Holman Hunt, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Thomas Phillips, Lord Frederic Leigton, Robert Scott Lauder, and Henry Willieam Pickersgill.
The "Charm of the East" collection, which is gathered with the partnership of Tate Britain, (one of the most distinguished art galleries in the world), British Council and Istanbul Pera Museum, brought the reconciliation of the present with the art of the past to Istanbul after its stops in the Unites States and the United Kingdom.
"Charm of the East" is a comprehensive collections that analyses British orientalist paintings, consisting of 150 million dollars worth of paintings, in which the British orientalists described nearly every aspect of the East. A Significant number of the painting are masterpieces. Osman Hamdi Bey's "Two Musician Girls" from Suna ve Inan Kirac Foundation Collection, Henry Bone's "Portrait of Thomas Hope in Turkish Clothles" and David Wilkie's "Portrait of Sultan Abdulmecid" from Topkapi Palace Museum Collection are among the 102 original works of art.
The Paintings are collected from various institutions and collections like Tate Britain, Louvre Museum, British Museum, Scotland National Gallery, United Kingdom Goverment Art Collection, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum and San Francisco Fine Arts Gallery. The collection is open to visitors in Istanbul until 11 January 2009. The last stop of the Exhibit will be the Sharjah Museum in the United Arab Emirates.
The unique works of art like the Turtle-tamer and others form a dialectic between the West and the East and invoke respect for the transformation of the contemporary East as well as the lessons of the past.