The Tortoise Trainer 1906

Osman Hamdi painted *The Tortoise Trainer* here in Istanbul. I can almost feel Hamdi making decisions about how each figure relates to the other, how the architectural structure contains them, and the light that almost melts their forms. The painting has a visual tension between the tortoises inching forward and the man in the bright red robe, who is trying to teach them to be quick. I wonder, when he made this, was Hamdi thinking about the slow pace of reform and change? Or, maybe he was just interested in the contrast between the creatures on the floor and the elaborate geometries of the room. The colours are muted, but the red jumps out. Red has always been a potent symbol, a call to action, but here it’s a little more subdued. It is a very strange painting—so beautiful, but also uncanny. I guess Hamdi was encouraging us to find beauty in the unusual. I think he succeeded.