Portrait of Naile Hanım

Marie Palyart, Osman Hamdi Bey’s second wife acquired the name Naile after her marriage. Very little is known about her other than that she was born in France in 1863 and that her mother Germaine Palyart also lived in Istanbul. Osman Hamdi Bey and Naile Hanım had three children, namely  Leyla (1880-1950), Edhem (1882-1957) and Nazlı (1893-1958). She continued to live in Istanbul after her husband’s death in 1910, went to live in Paris with her daughter Nazlı in 1930s, returned to Istanbul with  the outbreak of World War II and died on 21 September 1943, to be buried in the Latin  Catholic Cemetery at Feriköy.

Osman Hamdi Bey has frequently painted portraits of family members. The most common of these are those of Naile Hanım. The outlines of these paintings depicting her from the right or left profile, from the front or back, in different attire and at different ages are similar. The Portrait of Naile Hanım at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum Collection is distinguished by the gold paint used around the figure. The figure is portrayed from the left profile and the energetic brushstrokes on her attire and black headcover contrast with the immobile expression on her face. Another striking contrast is that between the black color covering half the canvas and the gold used in the rest.

The gold color around the portrait has always been related to holy personalities in Islamic art, Europe of the Middle Ages, early Renaissance and even as far back as Ancient Egypt. Osman Hamdi Bey who is among the first Turkish artists to depict women on canvas paintings used the gold background applied in Byzantine icons to stress the divinity of the figure in her wife Naile Hanım’s portrait.