Istanbul museum boasts unmatched Ottoman palace painting collection

-Museum boasts works by Turkish painters Osman Hamdi Bey, Seker Ahmed Pasa plus Russia's Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovky

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – A newly opened painting museum on the shores of Istanbul's breathtaking Bosphorus is home to an Ottoman palace painting collection that continues to draw visitors despite the pandemic.

The National Palaces Painting Museum in Istanbul's teeming Besiktas district was reopened by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this January following a multi-year restoration project.

The museum first opened in 2014 in the Dolmabahce Palace's Veliahd Residence, the living quarters of heirs to the throne at the Dolmabahce Palace – the famed home of the Ottoman Empire's last six sultans, and the place where Turkey's founding leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk spent his last days.

In Turkey, the week of May 18-24 marks International Museum Week, which grew out of International Museum Day, organized by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1977 to raise awareness of how museums "are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples," according to the group's website.

This year's theme – with a seeming nod to efforts to reclaim public space after a year lost to the pandemic – is "The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine."

-Ottoman palace painting collection

In 2014, only part of the Veliahd Residence was opened for visitors, Gulseren Sevinc Kaya, the museum director, told Anadolu Agency.

"The restoration of the other part was finished at the end of 2018," she added. "In the meantime, we carried out work furnishing both the newly opened and existing sections that are open to visitors."

"New sections have been opened, thematic sections were opened. We used to have 11 thematic sections, but now this number rose to 34," she said.

She added that the museum also tripled the number of exhibited paintings from 200 to 600 following the restoration work after the addition of Topkapi Palace paintings to the collection.

"The National Palaces' painting collection is the heir to the Ottoman palace painting collection," she said. "We're the only heir in Turkey and the world, so we tried to introduce the richest parts of our collection."

The two-floor museum boasts sections on classical Turkish painters such as Osman Hamdi Bey and Seker Ahmed Pasa as well as Russia's Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky plus other halls such as Imagining Istanbul, Landscape Paintings in the Ottoman Palace, and Gallipoli, paying homage to the famed World War I battle.

Another important artwork at the museum is Prince Halim's Gazelle Hunt at the Gatah Desert: Hound Share, known in Turkish as Desert Hunt (Colde Av).

"It's the largest painting of our National Palaces painting collection," she said.

The large 1865 painting by France's Felix Auguste Clement shows 13 people dismounted following a hunt. The painting was on display at Istanbul's Said Halim Pasha Mansion before being transferred to the palaces museum in 2019.

Kaya also highlighted the museum's picturesque location as well as its beautiful garden, plus cafes. According to Kaya, visitors wanting to get the most out of the waterside museum should set aside a full day.