Today in History – 4/5 July

The lost portrait of İnönü

By an interesting twist of luck in 2011, it became evident that the portrait of İnönü by renowned painter İbrahim Çallı, which was originally registered to the İstanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture but lost for the last 70 years, was being preserved at Eyüp County Building of CHP.

İbrahim Çallı was born in the Çal county of Denizli in 1882. A leading artist, important enough to lend his name to a generation of Turkish art, Çallı moved to İstanbul at a young age and held many different jobs to make a living. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in 1906 when Şeker Ahmet Pasha discovered his talent. After completing his studies, he was sent to Paris by the state and continued his education there until 1914. Çallı carried the strong influence of French Impressionists to Turkey and was among the pioneers of the “Generation 1914” artists also known as the “Çallı Generation.” Apart from his landscapes and still life paintings, the portraits he painted for Mustafa Kemal and İsmet Pasha reveal that rather than a mere observer, he is a sensitive artist that identifies with his subject.

İnönü’s lost painting had been borrowed from the Museum of Painting and Sculpture for an exhibition in the 1940s and was never returned.