Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910)

Kokona Despina

1906

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Osman Hamdi Bey has painted portraits as well as his characteristic orientalist pictures. Most of these are portraits of his family members or people close to him. The artist has added the name of the portrait’s owner and where it was painted (Eskihisar) to the upper left corner of this painting which bears the artist’s signature and the date 1906.

During those years Moslems called Christian women “kokona” and Despina is a maid at Osman Hamdi Bey’s residence. The artist’s photographs and the date and place information he wrote on his canvases indicate that he frequently resided at the Eskihisar village of Gebze from 1890s on. This house is now open to the public as Osman Hamdi Bey House and Museum. The artist’s studio where he painted is in the garden of the house surrounded with roses. His body also lies in the cemetery just behind the same house, in accordance with his will.

Detail

Title:

Kokona Despina

Artist:

Osman Hamdi Bey (1842-1910)

Date:

1906

Dimensions:

39.5 x 31 cm

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Location:

Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi (Emirgan, İstanbul, Türkiye)

Credit:

Exhibition History

Kokona Despina

Detail

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Artist:

Date:

Dimensions:

Medium:

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