Caricaturist
(Born 1882, Istanbul – Death 9 April 1950, Istanbul).He is the son of Dr. Cemal
Pasha and his full name is Cemil Cem. He graduated from Mekteb-i Sultani (Galatasaray
High School) and started his higher education in the faculty of law. Meanwhile he entered the Foreign Ministry as an
officer. Upon completing his higher education in 1903 he was assigned in
France. He continued his duty in various towns of France. Meanwhile he received
political science education in Paris. Cem who was interested in painting and
caricatures realized in Paris that caricature was an art. Under influence of
French caricaturist he started drawing. His caricatures drew attention and were
published in humor magazines. But in this period he remained as a caricaturist
who drew only for himself and for his friends.
Painting
restriction introduced by Abdülhamid II was removed with the declaration of the
2nd Constitutional Period. Cemil Cem started to send his caricatures
to Kalem which was one of the first
important humor magazines of Turkey in 1908. His caricatures were not only
based on lines but subtitles also were important. Under this aspect, Cem’s
works were different from what has been done until that time. Thinking that he
could not follow the political developments in his country from Europe, Cem resigned from his duty in 1910 and returned to
Istanbul. The same year he started to publish the famous humor magazine Cem.
His
only business now was caricature. In the first issue of the magazine he wrote
an introduction under the title "A
few words" in which he emphasized that caricature as a figure of
speech was based on literature and also to drawing; and that caricature could
not come into being without having an irony and a competent drawing. In his
portrait-caricatures of statesmen he reflected the most decisive
characteristics of their personalities or appearances skillfully. Cem aside from his caricatures in the
magazine also wrote articles under alias. In this magazine also Refik Halit’s
articles were published under the alias of “Kirpi-i Natüvan” (Exhausted
Hedgehog). When news of defeat started to come
from the front during the 2nd Balkan War, Cem closed the magazine in
1912 and went to Europe. He was in Europe during the years of Turkish
Independence War.
During
the war he returned to the country and worked as a director in Istanbul
Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (Mimar Sinan University). He started to publish his magazine Cem in 1927 again. Due to one of his caricatures which
criticized excessive taxes he was put on trial and condemned to one year
imprisonment but was later acquitted. Because of another caricature which was
about one of the current ministers Recep Peker his magazine was closed in 1928
and he was banned to publish caricatures. After being a member of municipal
assembly for a while he retreat himself and spent his whole time to paint.
Cemil
Cem’s caricatures usually were about the current political life such as Abdülhamid
II rule, attitudes of Party of Union and Progress and Party of Agreement. The
realism and irony in his lines affected many other caricaturists after him. He
was known with his competence in subtitles more than his portrait-caricatures
and lines; so he was known as "Master Cem". His realist approach was
encountered with reaction by political structures of every period. He has an
album titled Cem (1909) which
consists of twenty caricatures of Abdülhamid II published in Kalem magazine. Besides
other books of research and reviews were published about Cem which included his
caricatures.