Painter (B.1881,
Aksaray – D.1937, Istanbul). He was from the family of Molla Gürâni. For this
reason, he got the surname, Güran, after the Surname Law. He had his primary
education at Vefa Özel Şemsülmaarif School, his high school education at Vefa
İdadisi (high school), and his undergraduate education at Mülkiye Mektebi
(faculty of political sciencew) in 1901. He started working at Sadaret Mektupçu
Office. In those years, he continued his education at Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi
(academy of fine arts) in order to study on painting art which he had been
interested in since his childhood. There, he took lessons from the famous
painters of the time, such as Hoca Ali Rıza, Osman Hamdi Bey, Salvatore Valery,
Varniya and Osgan Efendi.
He graduated in 1908, and then he
went to Paris through his own means. At Fine Arts Academy of Paris, he worked
at the art studio of the painter Cormon. He spent his free time painting
outdoors and visiting museums. He worked at Musée du Louvre for two months. One
of his paintings was exhibited in Paris Art Gallery in 1912. He returned to Istanbul
at the end of 1913. He worked as a manager at İzmir Muallim Mektebi (teacher’s
training school). He worked as the schooling supervisor of Istanbul province
and as the manager of Sanayi-i Nefise. In 1915, he was charged by Maarif
Nezareti (ministry of education) with making paintings about Turkish history
for the purpose of exhibiting on the school walls.
Under the influence of the Impressionist
Movement, accepted as one of the pioneers of landscape painting along with
Hikmet Onat and Avni Lifij, Nazmi Ziya chose the views of Istanbul as the
subject in his works. He attracted attention especially with his works, which
portrayed foggy mornings of Istanbul with a unique technique. Apart from this,
there are portraits and various compositions of him.
Nazmi Ziya, being a part of Osmanlı
Ressamlar Cemiyeti (fine arts association) which was founded in 1909, from the
year of 1916, regularly participated in the exhibitions organized there. After
his death, a book, containing his life, art and some of his paintings, was
published by the Academy of Fine Arts. Celal Esat Arseven, in his book titled Sanat ve Siyaset Hatıralarım, in which
he collected his memories, gave the biggest part to his master Nazmi Ziya, and
praised him.
