Pera Museum: The Tortoise Trainer
Why is it significant?
Stop in front of the pale, ornate façade on Meşrutiyet Caddesi. It was built in the 1890s as the Bristol Hotel, one of the smart addresses of Pera, and since 2005 it has been the Pera Museum, with a collection of Orientalist paintings, Anatolian weights and measures, and Kütahya tiles and ceramics.
Key Facts
| Place | Pera Museum: The Tortoise Trainer |
|---|---|
| Address | Asmalı Mescit, Meşrutiyet Caddesi No:65, Tepebaşı, Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.03180, 28.97520 |
| Part of Walk | Across the Golden Horn: Hidden Galata and Pera, Istanbul |
| Generated | Generated |
Stop in front of the pale, ornate façade on Meşrutiyet Caddesi. It was built in the 1890s as the Bristol Hotel, one of the smart addresses of Pera, and since 2005 it has been the Pera Museum, with a collection of Orientalist paintings, Anatolian weights and measures, and Kütahya tiles and ceramics.
But most people come for one picture. An old man in a long red robe and a turban stands in a shadowy, tiled room. On his back hangs a reed flute, at his waist a pair of small drums, and at his feet five tortoises are munching leaves. He is trying to train them. They are not paying the slightest attention.
It is The Tortoise Trainer, painted in 1906 by Osman Hamdi Bey, and the old man is a self-portrait. Osman Hamdi was a remarkable figure: a painter trained in Paris, but also the archaeologist who directed and transformed the Imperial Museum, today's Istanbul Archaeology Museums, and the first Ottoman school of fine arts, in 1882. In 1887, at Sidon in today's Lebanon, his team uncovered the royal tombs that held the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus.
So what is he really doing with those tortoises? Many people read the painting as a quiet joke about reform: an intellectual trying to teach new tricks to a state that moves at its own slow pace. Others see a gentle comment on patience, or on the artist himself. The painting does not tell you, which is why it has been argued over for a century. It is probably the most beloved painting in Turkey, and its image is printed on everything from posters to cups.
Do not miss the details: the light falling from the high window, the tiles on the wall, the glow of the robe. When you come out, walk a few steps down the street, past the corner, to a hotel built in 1892 for passengers of the most famous train in the world.