Ottoman Empire 19th century
Abdul Qadir Al Rassam was an Iraqi painter of the first half of the twentieth century. He is known as a painter and graphic artist and is considered the founder of modern Iraqi painting.
Al Rassam, a military officer by training, studied drawing at the Military College in Istanbul. Returning to Iraq, he created landscapes, portraits and murals. His work is characterized by historical and ethnographic accuracy. The master, according to critics, contributed to the influence of the European academic school on the Iraqi art scene.
Charles Garabed Atamian is a French artist of Armenian origin born in Turkey.
He studied for a time at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, then worked as chief designer at a porcelain factory in Istanbul. In 1894, Atamian worked with a team of artists to decorate the new palace of Sultan Abdul-Hamid Il in Yildiz, on the European side of the Bosphorus. He designed, among other things, the patterns for the ceramic tiles of the palace walls.
In 1897, Atamian emigrated to France and began illustrating books and magazines, as well as working on sets for several Parisian theaters. Since 1903 Atamian participated in various exhibitions with unquestionable success. He painted landscapes, sea and beach scenes with children (including some 200 paintings at Saint-Gilles in the Vendée, where he resided each year during the summer months from 1923 to 1939). Throughout his career he was a fine portrait painter. He became a member of the National Society of Artists in 1927.
