Elif Soyseven | Türk resminin kayıp ressamı: Mihri Rasim mi? Mihri Müşfik mi? Kim Mihri? Mihri'nin öğrencileri Fahrelnissa Zeid, Aliye Berger, Güzin Duran, Nazlı Ecevit ve niceleri, Türk Sanat Tarihi’nin yapı taşları oldular. Sanat tarihçisi Linda N

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Made by Mihri Müşfik Hanım, one of the earliest professional women painters active in late Ottoman İstanbul, this painting functions as self-fashioning. An enveloping dark garment frames the artist’s face as the site of agency that is composed, observant, and unperformative. Pastel lets her build features through breath-like transitions rather than hard outlines, so presence arrives as atmosphere with quiet insistence rather than spectacle. She is a seated young woman facing us against a warm, brown, cross-hatched backdrop. Her skin is rendered in pale, velvety pastel tones. Dark brows and large, shadowed eyes hold a steady, quiet gaze. Soft black hair falls in loose waves across her forehead. She wears a deep navy-black hood that swallows her shoulders and lap, opening to a light blouse at the chest and a short strand of pearls. A pale forearm emerges at the lower right, while the other hand is only lightly indicated in the dark. The edges dissolve into smoky shadow, making her feel half-present like a memory held in charcoal-soft light. The exact year of creation isn’t recorded, but the mood of poised self-possession resonates across eras with what we know of Mihri’s life in motion. Born into an elite Ottoman family, she trained early with the court painter Fausto Zonaro before traveling to Rome and Paris in the early 1900s for an education that sharpened her drawing and portrait craft and, just as crucially, widened her sense of what a woman artist could be. When she returned to İstanbul, she pushed against institutional barriers by teaching, organizing, and helping establish formal art education for women … eventually leading the School of Fine Arts for Girls (İnas Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi) and insisting her students work from life and outdoors. Seen today in İstanbul Modern’s collection (Semra Karamürsel donation), the work holds onto Mihri’s modernity as a woman claiming the artist’s right to look, to choose her own image, and to endure on her own terms.

“Otoportre (Self-portrait)” by Mihri Müşfik Hanım (Mihri Rasim) (Abkhazian Turkish) - Pastel on canvas / c. 1910s - İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi Collection (Türkiye) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #art #artText #TurkishArtist #MihriMusfik #SelfPortrait #MihriHanım #MihriRasim

Born in 1885, Mihri Hanım, also referred to as Mihri Rasim and Mihri Müşfik (her husband’s surname), was one of the first women artists of the late Ottoman Empire. Born into a privileged upper-class Abkhazian family, she began painting at a young age under the tutelage the Ottoman court painter Fausto Zonaro. Traveling to Rome and then Paris in the early 1900s, Mihri attended several painting studios and earned her living as a portrait painter. When she returned to Istanbul in 1914, she instigated the establishment of the first school of art accepting women in the Ottoman Empire, Women’s Fine Arts Academy. At the age of 29, Mihri became the first female director of the academy and one of the painting tutors. Against all bureaucratic constraints, she encouraged her students, including Nazlı Ecevit, Müzdan Arel, Fahrelnissa Zeid, and Güzin Duran to experiment en plein air and to paint from live models. In 1920s, Mihri relocated to Italy and then in 1927 she migrated to New York. Prominent figures in some of her portraits include Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Alva Edison, Edwin Markham, Gabriele D’Annunzio, and this undated self-portrait. She presents herself in 2nd-quarter 20th century attire and hairstyle with a pensive expression and a gaze directed slightly upward and away from us. Her black robe with a deep v-neckline, revealing a hint of a lighter pinkish undergarment is complemented by long dark gloves, extending past her wrists plus a dark cap atop her head. Mixing a realistic style with somewhat loose brushstroke, particularly noticeable in the background and the fabric, Mihri's use of muted and dark colors, with a focus on browns, blacks, and greys, creates a mood of quiet introspection or contemplation. Her pose, expression, and the dark color palette all contribute to a feeling of seriousness ... or, perhaps, a sense of mystery.

Otoportre (Self-portrait) by Mihri Hanım (Abkhazian) - Oil on canvas / c. 1925 - Istanbul Painting & Sculpture Museum (Türkiye) #womeninart #womanartist #selfportrait #womensart #portraitofawoman #Abkhazian #art #artwork #fineart #portrait #oilpainting #MihriHanım #mihri #herstory #MihriRasim