Untitled 

Fikret Mualla Saygi made this untitled painting with gouache on paper. It shows a crowd of people at what seems to be a fair, with children, mothers, and even a dog. Saygi spent much of his life in exile in Paris, and this painting conveys a sense of the artist as an outsider, looking in on a society that is not quite his own. It's hard to know the exact time in which it was made, but the subject, choice of medium, and overall style suggest that the artist was working in the tradition of impressionism and post-impressionism that had become popular in France since the late 19th century. Saygi received art training in Germany and France and it is perhaps unsurprising that the artist, who spent much of his life moving between countries and cultures, depicts the figures in this painting in such a way that it is difficult to know what class they belong to. Through historical sources and archival research, we are able to understand the conditions that shaped the artist's life and to connect his personal history with the social history of his time.