Osman Hamdi Bey and the Americans
The Pera Museum exhibition catalogue showcases a rich selection of paintings by Osman Hamdi Bey, archaeological photographs and drawings from the 19th century, letters, travel journals, and archaeological artifacts. Apart from his lesser-known paintings, two unknown works of Osman Hamdi Bey discovered at the Penn Museum are also introduced to readers.
Date of Publication: 2011
Number of pages: 411
ISBN: 978-975-9123-89-5
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Hamdi Bey was an art expert and painter from Istanbul (former Constantinople) then in the Ottoman Empire (now modern-day Turkey), whose passions for both art and archaeology laid the groundwork for his unique relationship with the Penn Museum. As founder of both the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul and the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts (now known as the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts), Hamdi Bey developed the profession of the museum curator in Turkey.
“At the Mosque Door” was in the Museum Archives since the department was set up in the late 1970s, known to some scholars but not the general public. It was purchased by the Museum in 1895 after being displayed in multiple exhibitions, as a way to incur favor with Hamdi Bey, and obtain a share of the finds from the Museum’s earliest excavations in ancient Nippur, located in present-day Iraq.
The painting’s journey to Philadelphia began when Hamdi Bey created the piece, along with one other, to be shown at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. However, before making it to Chicago the painting was shipped to France in 1892 for inclusion in the Palais de l’Industrie. After its time in Chicago, the painting made its way to Philadelphia where it was eventually acquired by the Penn Museum.
“The Excavations of the University Museum at Nippur, Mesopotamia,” painted in 1903, depicts the Penn Museum’s late 19th century excavation of Nippur, a Mesopotamian city. It was this excavation that led to the founding of the Penn Museum.
Although Hamdi Bey was not present at the excavation, he recreated the scene using an 1893 photograph of the site taken by John Henry Haynes, the excavation’s field director and an early archaeological photographer. However, the painting is not an exact copy of its inspiration. Hamdi Bey made several deviations from the photograph, including changing the image’s borders and adding several lone figures, including Assyriologist and friend Hermann Vollrath Hilprecht, who oversaw the excavation’s progress. The painting remained in the Hilprecht family until it was loaned to the Penn Museum in 1930 and ultimately donated in 1948.
As compelling and integral as these two pieces are to the founding of the Penn Museum, “At the Mosque Door” flew under the radar in the Archives for several years, until Museum staff was presented with an exciting new initiative to dig deeper than ever into the artist’s history.
Mavi Boncuk |[1] Hermann Volrath Hilprecht (July 28, 1859 – March 19, 1925)
was a German-American Assyriologist and archaeologist.
As second Assyriologist in charge, he participated in the
first campaign of excavations at Nippur (modern Nuffar, Iraq) in 1889. In the
following two campaigns he was a member of the scientific committee in
Philadelphia and eventually travelled to Constantinople to examine the portable
finds and arrange the separation/acquisition of duplicate pieces for the newly
constructed University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
in Philadelphia. He also rearranged the Imperial Ottoman Museum for which the
director Hamdy Bey showed his gratitude with a favorable separation of the
findings.
During the fourth and last campaign he was coordinating
director of the expedition, sending out John Henry Haynes accompanied by his
wife Cassandria as field director from 1898-1900 (later in 1899 efforts were
increased by sending out two young architects H. V. Geere and C. S. Fisher).
Hilprecht himself took responsibility for the whole excavation for the last
part of this campaign from March 1 until May 11, 1900.
Afterwards he undertook the editing of the publications
programme of the "Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania"(=BE). This publication series also incorporated quantities
of bought cuneiform tablets, acquired in Baghdad from the antiquities dealers
which tried to undermine the efforts of continuing the US excavations.
With announcing the discovery of the Temple Library of
Nippur after finishing the fourth campaign, some other team members including
the former expedition director John Punnett Peters built a strong opposition
against Hilprecht who claimed "the cream" of nearly every important
discovery as his work. Some American orientalists joined in and the so-called
"Peters-Hilprecht-Controversy" was born. This fierce controversy
fought in newspapers and even lectures prevented most of the research of the
acquired material for the next years.
After his resignation in 1911 of which (besides the
"Peters-Hilprecht-Controversy") the main reason was the breakup of
his bureau late in 1911. The numbered boxes were opened, confused, and burned
(including the files of the archaeological context). After this the publication
series were changed to the "Publications of the Babylonian Section”
Afterwards he returned to the United States, where he became a citizen.
He died in Philadelphia in 1925. After his death his second
wife, according to H. V. Hilprechts last will, handed over his collection of
Babylonian antiquities to the University of Jena founding the "Frau
Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities" (eventually
Germanized under the regime of the Nazis in "Frau Professor Hilprecht
Sammlung Babylonischer Altertümer") in remembrance of his first wife. It
incorporates more than 2000 cuneiform tablets and pieces and the personal
archive of him. One of the most recognized pieces is the "city map of
Nippur" one of the earliest city maps recovered presumably from the late
Kassite period.
Works
He is known among Assyriologists by his Freibrief
Nebukadnezars I (Leipzig, 1883). In the spring of 1887, he delivered, in the
chapel of the University of Pennsylvania, a course of lectures on "The
Family and Civil Life of the Egyptians,""The Most Flourishing Period
of Egyptian Literature," and "Egypt in the Time of Israel's
Sojourn." His other literary works consist of contributions to Luthardt's
Theologisches Literaturblatt (Leipzig), and to other periodicals.