Still Life with Flowers Şeker Ahmed Paşa 1903

Still Life with Flowers
Şeker Ahmed Paşa 1903
From the collection of
Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Born in Üsküdar, Istanbul, Şeker Ahmed Paşa was a leading member of the military painters group. He commenced his studies in 1855 at the Medical College, but in 1856 left to enrol at the Military Academy. While still a student there he worked as an assistant art teacher. In 1864 Sultan Abdülaziz awarded him a scholarship to study art in Paris. In 1870 he studied under the painters Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). His paintings were exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1869 and 1870. In 1871 he returned to Istanbul, where he was appointed to teach at the Sultanahmet School of Art, and also taught at various military schools. He rose to the rank of captain and began to teach art at the Medical College. In 1873 he organised Turkey's first painting exhibition at Sultanahmet School of Art, and in 1875 organised the second at Darülfünun (Istanbul University). He assisted Osman Hamdi Bey in founding the Royal School of Fine Arts. In 1890 he was appointed as court painter, and in 1895 as master of ceremonies for foreign guests received at the palace. He played a major role in building the palace art collection.

Şeker Ahmed Paşa was one of the military painters, a group of artists who trained at 19th century Ottoman military schools, where the teaching followed western methods. These artists can be regarded as the initiators of western-style painting in Ottoman Turkey in the nineteenth century. They often preferred to paint landscapes and still lifes because of a traditional reluctance to depict human figures in Ottoman art.

Şeker Ahmed Paşa also served as court painter, a position created during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid (r. 1839-1861) and continuing until the end of the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909). The court painters were selected by the sultan and as well as painting often served in various different capacities at the palace, such as art instructors, head of palace protocol and/or in charge of relations with foreign painters and guests.
Details
Title: Still Life with Flowers
Creator: Şeker Ahmed Paşa (Turkish, 1841-1907)
Date Created: 1903
Physical Dimensions: 67.5 x 92 cm
Subject Keywords: Still-life painting, Flowers in art, Painting, Turkish
Type: Painting
Rights: Sakıp Sabancı Museum
External Link: http://digisu.sabanciuniv.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ResimKlksyn/id/707/rec/3
Medium: Oil on canvas

Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Turkey

Sabancı University's Sakıp Sabancı Museum is located in Emirgan, at one of Istanbul's oldest settlements on the Bosphorus.

In 1927, Prince Mehmed Ali Hasan of the Hidiv family of Egypt commissioned the Italian architect Edouard De Nari to build the villa, now the museum's main building, and it was used as a summer house for many years by various members of the Hidiv family; for a short time it also served as the Montenegran Embassy.

After the mansion was purchased in 1950 by industrialist Hacı Ömer Sabancı from Princess Iffet, a member of the Hidiv family, as a summer residence, it came to be known as Atlı Köşk, “The Horse Mansion”, because of the statue of a horse (purchased in the same year) that was installed in the garden; the statue is the 1864 work of the French sculptor Louis Doumas.

A second horse sculpture on the grounds of Atlı Köşk that gave the mansion its name is the cast of one of the four horses taken from Sultanahmet square in Istanbul when it was looted by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and removed to the Basilica of San Marco in Venice.

After the death of Hacı Ömer Sabancı in 1966, Atlı Köşk began to be used permanently as a home by Sakıp Sabancı in 1974 as the eldest of the family, and for many years housed Sakıp Sabancı's rich collection of calligraphy and paintings. In 1998, together with its collection and furnishings, the mansion was allocated to Sabancı University to be transformed into a museum.

With the annex of a modern gallery, the exhibition areas of the museum opened to visitors in 2002; with a further extension of the layout in 2005, the technical level of the museum reached international standards.
Today Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum presents a versatile museological environment with its rich permanent collection, the comprehensive temporary exhibitions that it hosts, its conservation units, model educational programs and the various concerts, conferences and seminars held there.

Şeker Ahmed Pasha
1841 - May 5, 1907

"Şeker" Ahmed Pasha was an Ottoman painter, soldier and government official. His real name was Ahmed Ali, his nickname "Şeker" meaning "sugar" in Turkish.
http://hisour.com/art-medium/paintings/still-life-with-flowers-seker-ahmed-pasa-1903/