Alongside his distinctive Orientalist compositions, Osman Hamdi Bey is also known for his portraits of family members and those within his close circle. In this painting titled ‘Kokona Despina’, the artist depicts Despina, his domestic assistant who worked at his house in Eskihisar. The word ‘kokona’ was, at the time, a term used by Muslims to address Christian women. Hamdi inscribes the sitter’s name, the place of execution (‘Eski-Hissar’), and the date 1906, together with his signature, in the upper right corner of the canvas.
In this portrait, Osman Hamdi portrays the elderly Despina against a plain background, her features rendered with carefully controlled brushwork that captures the traces of age and experience. Her grey hair is partly covered, the lace-edged end of her black headscarf falls to one side, and three buttons of the shirt beneath her fur-trimmed jacket are visible. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Osman Hamdi does not idealise old age; the wrinkles and weariness on Despina’s face are recorded without concealment, treated instead as integral to her identity. In art history, the theme of ageing has often been associated with reading a life’s story in the lines of a face; Osman Hamdi continues this tradition with an observational sensitivity that foregrounds individuality and lived experience.
Photography played a central role in Osman Hamdi’s portrait practice. He frequently used photographic studies to determine a model’s pose, clothing or lighting. This working method is evident in photographs of his wife Naile Hanım posing for his compositions, as well as in his own self-portraits. It is likely that ‘Kokona Despina’ too was also based on such photographic observation. Despite its compositional simplicity, the figure’s finely modelled features and the restrained naturalism of the painting reveal the artist’s pursuit of visual accuracy and psychological presence.
Despina’s portrayal contrasts sharply with the women in Osman Hamdi’s Orientalist scenes. Here, the model is not an exoticised motif, but an individual drawn from everyday life. Her modest clothing, weary expression and calm posture convey both personal testimony and social standing. The painting thus exemplifies the artist’s direct, empathetic approach to representing the ‘servant’ figure.
From the 1890s onwards, as photographs and paintings attest, Osman Hamdi frequently stayed in the village of Eskihisar near Gebze, where he built a life closely connected to nature and to his art. The house he is thought to have constructed in the 1880s, together with its garden studio, survives today as the Osman Hamdi Bey House and Museum. Following his death in 1910, he was buried, according to his wishes, on the hill behind his home. The Eskihisar years mark a period in which the artist increasingly turned to figures from daily life – family members, gardeners, fishermen, villagers and domestic workers. ‘Kokona Despina’ stands as a refined example of the simplicity of expression, observational realism and social sensitivity that define this phase of his career.
