Artist

Hüseyin Avni Lifij

Hüseyin Avni Lifij was born in Istanbul, the son of a Circassian family. After completing his secondary education in Fatih, he observed lessons at the Civil Medical College to learn anatomy, and physics and chemistry lessons at the School of Pharmacy to learn about the structure of paint. He took French lessons from İskender Ferid Bey, and continued his study of the language at the Alliance Israélite School. While earning a living by cleaning the mosaics at the Hagia Sophia during its restoration, Lifij met the French architect Henri Prost (1874-1959). Through Prost and İskender Ferid, he met Osman Hamdi Bey, upon whose suggestion he briefly attended the Academy of Fine Arts. Supported by Prince Abdülmecid Efendi, he went to Paris in 1909 and attended Fernand Cormon’s studio at the École des Beaux-Arts. He then continued in the studios of Octave Denis Victor Guillonet and Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ. When the Society of Ottoman Painters was founded in 1909, he supported its official gazette by contributing articles, letters, and drawings from Paris. He returned to Istanbul in 1912 and taught painting at the Istanbul High School for Boys until 1914. From 1915 onwards he taught French at the Kandilli High School for Girls. He took part in the Galatasaray Exhibitions from 1916 onwards. Although he did not participate in the Şişli Studio, his works were shown in the Vienna exhibition of 1918, titled War Paintings and Others. He opened his first solo exhibition at the Orient Littéraire Department of Management in 1918. In addition to his work as a painter, he wrote art reviews and took an interest in photography. Avni Lifij worked on the establishment of the Decorative Arts Department at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught from 1923 until his death in 1927.