Osman Hamdi Bey

Osman Hamdi Bey, son of a future grand vizier, went to Paris to study law but switched to painting under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Gustave Boulanger. Back in Istanbul he became the Ottoman Empire's first archaeologist and museum director, founding what are now the Istanbul Archaeology Museums and the Academy of Fine Arts. His paintings answer European Orientalism from the inside, with learned, dignified figures in Ottoman settings. His best-known picture is The Tortoise Trainer (1906).