Abdülmecid Efendi

Abdülmecid Efendi served as the last caliph of the Muslim world between 1922 and 1924 after unexpectedly becoming the crown prince of the Ottoman dynasty in 1918. Before stepping into the political spotlight during the final years of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1922), he established himself as an artist and important patron of easel painting, a modern artistic medium imported from Western Europe in the late eighteenth century that would, by the end of the following century, eclipse the conventional Ottoman art forms of miniature and calligraphy. At a time when easel painting was not deemed a respectable profession in Ottoman Turkish society, the prince bestowed royal recognition on Istanbul’s painters while also supporting their public activities financially.

As an artist and patron, Abdülmecid Efendi followed in the footsteps of his father, Sultan Abdülaziz, who had been trained in Ottoman calligraphy and European painting and had a personal passion for the fine arts. During his reign (1861–76), Sultan Abdülaziz assembled a palace collection of contemporary Ottoman and European easel paintings, some of which were commissions from the foreign painters he employed in his court. They included French Orientalist painter Pierre-Désiré Guillemet, Polish history painter Stanisław Chlebowski, and Russian-Armenian seascape painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Between 1875 and 1876 the sultan also acquired contemporary French paintings from the Parisian dealer Adolphe Goupil, father-in-law of Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. Facilitated by Gérôme and brokered by the sultan’s aide-de-camp, Ahmet Ali Pasha, who had studied painting in Paris from 1864 to 1871 on a scholarship from the palace, these acquisitions ranged from Barbizon landscapes and Orientalist paintings to historical subjects, such as domestic scenes from Pompeii. Works in his collection included Gérôme’s Bachi-Bouzouk dansant (Bashi-Bazouk Dancing, 1875; Cumhurbaşkanlığı Atatürk Müze Köşkü Koleksiyonu, Ankara), Charles Joshua Chaplin’s Roses de mai (Roses of May, 1875; National Palaces Collection, Istanbul), Giuseppe de Nittis’s La Place de la Concorde (1875; Cumhurbaşkanlığı Atatürk Müze Köşkü Koleksiyonu, Ankara), and Gustave-Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger’s Intérieur Pompéien (Le Gynécée) (Pompeian Interior[The Gynaeceum], 1875; National Palaces Collection, Istanbul). Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, these paintings passed to the Turkish Republic and have since been dispersed among various public collections.

Like his father, Abdülmecid Efendi trained in both Ottoman calligraphy and European painting. The prince regularly showed his own paintings at group exhibitions in Istanbul and abroad, including the 1914 Paris Salon and an exhibition of Turkish painting in Vienna in 1918. In an early act of artistic patronage, he funded painter Hüseyin Avni Lifij’s training in Paris from 1909 to 1912. Continuing to support Lifij upon his return to Istanbul, Abdülmecid Efendi offered him a residence and a stipend, acquired his paintings, and commissioned a mural for his mansion in the city’s Bağlarbaşı neighborhood.

Abdülmecid Efendi’s patronage gained a public dimension when he became the honorary president of the Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti (Society of Ottoman Painters), the first independent professional association for modern artists in Turkey, founded in 1909. This association supported the development of easel painting in the imperial capital by working to popularize it in Ottoman society and providing guidance to artists on their legal rights at a time when there were no private art galleries. From 1911–14, and with financial support from the prince, the society published Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti Gazetesi (Journal of the Society of Ottoman Painters), the first specialized art magazine in Turkey; a portrait of Abdülmecid Efendi graces the covers of its first ten issues.

As his last act of artistic patronage in Turkey, Abdülmecid Efendi provided financial support between 1919 and 1922 for the Galatasaray Sergileri (Galatasaray Exhibitions), annual art exhibitions organized by the Society of Ottoman Painters in Istanbul. When the Grand National Assembly of the Turkish Republic (proclaimed in 1923) abolished the caliphate on March 3, 1924, Abdülmecid Efendi was exiled along with other members of the Ottoman dynasty. After a brief stay in Switzerland, he settled in France, where he spent the rest of his life.