Painter (B. Çal/Denizli, 1881 – D. Istanbul, 1960). He
completed her primary and secondary education in Çal and İzmir. He took her
first painting lectures in Istanbul to where he came for entering military
school in 1899 and do various works from a teacher who gave painting lectures
to students of Vefa High School. Later he learnt painting from the painter
Ruben Efendi who worked in Grand Bazaar. He met meanwhile İzzettin Bey, son of
Şeker Ahmet Pasha, and with his encouragement he entered in 1906 Sanayi-i Nefise
Mektebi (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University). He completed this school with a first whose
education actually lasted six years (1909).
The next year he won a competition organized by the
Ministry of Education with his paintings titled “Çıplak Adam” and “Harekat Ordusu'nun Muhafız Alayı'ndan Maksut Çavuş”. He was sent to France with a scholarship together
with Hikmet Onat, Ali Sami Boyar, and Ruhi Arel. He studied painting in the
workshop of Fernand Cormon in Paris Fine Arts Higher School for four years. Upon
the start of the First World War he returned home and started to work as the
assistant of Vallaury in Fine Arts Academy. After a while he was assigned to
teacher of workshop. In 1917 upon the order of Enver Pasha, War Minister, he
worked together with people such as Hikmet Onat, Ruhi Arel, Avni Lifij and Namık
İsmail in Şişli in the workshop founded for purposes of making war paintings.
He taught painting in Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy in the workshop opened
into his name until being retired in 1947. He contributed to the education of
numerous painters including Şeref Akdik, Refik Epikman, Elif Naci, Mahmut Cuda,
Muhittin Sebati, Ali Çelebi and Zeki Kocamemi. He was one of the founders of
the Fine Arts Union.
Çallı is one of the most original representatives of the
painter group called "1914 generation", "Turkish
impressionists" or rather known as "Çallı generation" in Turkish
painting. The group consisting of impressionist painters such as Nazmi Ziya Gören,
Hikmet Onat, Ruhi Arel, Avni Lifij and Namık İsmail opened their first painting
exhibition called “Galatasaray Exhibitions” which aroused great interest. Çallı
under the influence of the Russian painter Alexis Grichenko who was in 1927 in
İstanbul shifted away from impressionist technique and adopted his schematic
design close to graphics and less complicated color understanding. His series
called Mevleviler
came into being
under this influence. After a short while Çallı returned to impressionist
understanding and remained loyal to it until the end of his life. This
understanding which is based on a transformed shape of real impressionism is
also called “academic”.
He realized productions in pays age, portrait, still
life and domestic styles. First samples of nü (nude genre) which was not available
in Turkish painting until that time belong to him. His work titled Türk Topçularının Mevzie Girişi (Mimar Sinan University Museum of Painting and
Sculpture, 1917) is one of the first large sized compositions of Turkish
painting. He painted in the first period of his artistic career (1914-23)
balls, island trips, nude women figures and famous people around him. Products
of this period carry a certain concern of balanced composition. In them there
is a palette free of dark colors such as black and brown and a free brush work.
After 1923 aside from paysage and still life works, he
made paintings about Atatürk revolutions and especially Independence War. He
relatively shifted away from impressionist technique and adopted a more
traditional approach in his works İstiklal Savaşı'nda Zeybekler (1923), Atatürk Portresi (1935), Süvariler (1936), Hatay'ın Anavatana Hasreti (1938) which are in the Museum of Painting and
Sculpture of Mimar Sinan University. In his last years he made still life
paintings such as Manolyalar etc. which were his most famous works.
