Artist

Şevket Dağ

Şevket Dağ, son of the naval lieutenant Çerkez İsmail Kaptan, was born in Fatih. After completing his secondary education at the Dârülmuallimîn (Teacher Training School), he became one of the first students in the painting department at the Academy of Fine Arts, taking lessons from Osman Hamdi Bey and Salvatore Valeri. He graduated in 1897 and began a clerkship in the Ministry of Evkaf, the institution responsible for the administration of foundations. He taught painting at the Imperial School (the Galatasaray High School) for twenty-three years. His paintings were included in the Istanbul Salon Exhibitions of 1901, 1902, and 1903. In 1909, he played a role in establishing the Society of Ottoman Painters and served on its board of directors. He continued in this role after the Society of Ottoman Painters became the Society of Turkish Painters in 1921, the Turkish Association of Fine Arts in 1926, and the Association of Fine Arts in 1929. For many years, he participated in the Galatasaray and Ankara Exhibitions. During the First World War, he worked alongside artists such as İbrahim Çallı, Namık İsmail, and Ali Sami Boyar in the Şişli Studio, established in 1917 to make war paintings. The resulting works were exhibited in Vienna in 1918. Şevket Dağ won gold and silver medals for his participation in exhibitions in Athens in 1904 and in Sofia and Brussels in 1910. His paintings were also awarded a gold medal at an exhibition held at the Glaspalast in Munich in 1909. In 1933 he participated in the exhibition at the Salon des artistes français in Paris. Later in life, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for the Turkish provinces of Konya and Siirt.