Orientalist tendencies in Turkish painting and their reflections on Osman Hamdi Bey's works

This thesis examines orientalist tendencies in Turkish painting and their reflections in the works of Osman Hamdi Bey. Orientalism emerged as an effort to create an image and perception of the East in Western art, and this process affected Turkish painting in various ways. The thesis first examines the definition and historical development of Orientalism, how this movement took shape in the West, and the common features in the works of important painters. The second section provides a detailed analysis of orientalist influences in Turkish painting, the influence of Western painters during the Ottoman Empire, and how these themes found a place in the works of Turkish painters. Osman Hamdi Bey's works stand out especially in terms of cultural interaction and figurative understanding; his works successfully reflect the synthesis of the East and the West. The thesis also emphasizes the common themes and features between the works of Osman Hamdi Bey and the works of other Turkish painters, and reveals how orientalist tendencies led to a transformation process in Turkish art. In the last section, the results are evaluated and analyzed, and the importance of orientalist tendencies in Turkish painting is emphasized in terms of the artists' search for identity, social reflections and depth of cultural meaning. This study aims to provide an important perspective on art history, to reveal the place of orientalism in Turkish art and Osman Hamdi Bey's contributions to this movement.