Orientalism in art and Osman Hamdi as an orientalist

The conflict between Western and Eastern civilizations was built mostly on a social sphere. For many years, West and East knew each other on the battlefields and in this process, they had opinions about each other due to their views on the battlefields. These ideas caused West and East, in social mean, to describe each other from various angles and negatively. However, in this process, West evaluated the issue tougher and did not give up showing the East as evil. As a part of this process, the approach of orientalism was created to show West's tough, humiliating and unfriendly attitude against the East. Orientalism, which has a political meaning mostly, in time, found a place in the world of art and painting became one of the most powerful tools of orientalism. At the same time, the painting consolidated the Eastern image, which depends on dreams and is negative. In this context, while orientalism become a matter of debate, for Eastern painters, their perception of orientalism and their evaluations on this issue are extremely important. As one of these Eastern painters, Osman Hamdi Bey was evaluated as an orientalist or an anti-orientalist from different angles. In this thesis, in the basis of orientalism and its reflections in art, the chosen works of Osman Hamdi Bey are investigated and the relation of Osman Hamdi Bey with orientalism due to these works is evaluated.