HODJA AU RIZA BEY
Hodja AN Riza Bey was born in 1858 and gra duated from the Military Academy in 1883. He was to spend the next forty-seven years of his life as teacher of art at the Academy and other schools, and produced a number of albums of pen and ink sketches to be used as models by his pupils At that time it was the custom for pupils to imitate models prepared by the tea cher rather than to work from nature or live models.
At the same time AN Riza Bey produced so many water-colours, gouaches, pen and ink drawings and oil paintings that a comprehen sive exhibition of his works would be quite out of the question. An exhibition of some of his works arranged by his children three years after his death (he died of a stroke in 1930),
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and later exhibitions were held in Ankara in 1958 and in Istanbul in 1960. A number of his works are to be found in the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture and in a number of private collections.
Most of his works are landscapes and portraits, and are characterised by strength of design and keen observation. We can also see the influen ce of the Impressionists in the use of colour, particularly in the use of orange-yellow for light and purple for shadow. It is, however, as the painter of Uskudar that he will be most re membered. The old suburb of Uskudar, which he loved so much, has been made immortal in the work of this modest but highly sensitive artist.
