Painter (B. 1886, Kadıköy / Istanbul – D. 1954, USA). The first Turkish women
painter Mihrî Müşfik was born in Rasim Paşa Mansion in Kadıköy. She took her
first cultural education from private teachers, coming to her house. Due to her
family lifestyle, she took a European style of education and interested in
literature, music and painting, all at the same time. Among these, her interest in painting
overwhelmed others and she took lessons from Zonaro in his studio in Beşiktaş.
She watched opera singers, musicians coming to Istanbul and wore low-cut
clothes, which was found odd at that time, and showed her desire for European
lifestyle with her every single behavior. Actually,
she was a beautiful and cheerful daughter of her philanderer father. Like her
father, she was prone to live her life full of joy and pleasure.
She ran away with an artist from the
Italian origin to Rome to paint, with the romanticism resulting from youth.
Then from there, she passed to
Minister of Finance, Cavit Bey, who had come to Paris as a part of his duty,
sent a telegraph to Education Minister, asked for a support for Mihrî Hanım,
with whom he met in a party in Paris. Upon this,
Mihrî Müşfik was appointed to İstanbul Darülmuallimatı (Teacher's training
school for girls) in 1913. She became a teacher of Sanayi-i Nefise (
While the poets of Edebiyat-ı Cedide
(T.N. the new literature) were
under the influence of French literature in the period of Westernization, Mihrî
Müşfik Hanım painted what those poets had written, composing the "Painting
of Edebiyat-ı Cedide." In
his memories about Tevfik Fikret, Ruşen Eşref Ünaydın expressed the great
poet's comments on Mihrî Hanım: "There is a lady, painting. She
interprets "Rübab" so well that I began to wonder if my poem was that
much meaningful." Also known to have portrayed Edebiyat-ı
Cedide poets, Mihrî Hanım made a mould of Tevfik Fikret's face upon his
death in 1915. Thus, she took serious steps in sculpture in as early as 1915.
Mihrî Müşfik Hanım went to Italy in
1919. It has been assumed that she rushed off Istanbul due to her close relations with the
members of the İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress),
and this put her in a difficult position at this invaded city. She visited
Hüseyin Cahit Yalçın and Hüseyin Cavit, who were arrested at that time, which
caused articles against her in the press. In this complicated time, she went to
Italy for a year, and returned to teach for two years in Sanayi-i Nefise. She
went to
During her life in Rome with her tableaus when she was together with the
poet Gabriele d'Annunzio, perhaps thanks to Danonçiyo, one of her paintings was
put in the Museum of Vatican. She even portrayed the Pope later. This was the first time a woman ever
portrayed the Pope. All of these were thanks to the friendship of the famous
poet Danonçiyo.
Mihri Müşfik spent most of her time
in
Aunt of the artist Hale Asaf, Mihri
Müşfik went to America with a desire to live in another world after the deaths of
her sister Enise Salih
Hanım in a sanatorium in Switzerland following the divorced from her husband and
also her niece Hale Asaf
at an early age. She is said to have portrayed Rezzan
Yalman, the wife of journalist Ahmet Emin Yalman, who was in the USA at that
time, painted for the cover pages of the magazines published in New York during
the World War II, and been seen by Ahmet Emin Yalman in New York in 1941-42,
before she died there. She was buried in the New York Cemetery of the Nameless.