Turtle Trainer Designs
It is the painting that was drawn by Osman Hamdi Bey who was the turtle trainer in two versions in 1906 and 1907 respectively. The name of the painting was called as Turtles and Man in seventeenth issue of the newspaper published by “Ottoman Artists Association” however, the painting was commonly called as Turtle Trainer afterwards. This painting of Osman Hamdi Bey was interpreted as the fatigued position of a literate who spared great effort to modernize the society at that time where any clear information about source of inspiration was not available. According to another comments, the man who standing as thoughtful hopes to carry out the training activity for turtles that needs patience by playing reed flute and a small kettledrum used in mehter music on his back. According to this comment, the trainer is himself of Osman Hamdi Bey. In spite of the fact that the difficult job of the trainer attempted to ease that difficult job by his own musical devices, it emphasized that Osman Hamdi Bey spared no effort to modernize the society who resisted to the change by means of art so he attempted to open art school and museum accordingly.
