Osman Hamdi Bey: Beyond What Is Seen

Beyond the Surface: Osman Hamdi Bey Works by Osman Hamdi Bey, an important figure in our art history, are on display at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum collection of Sabancı University. A new exhibition titled "Beyond the Surface: Osman Hamdi Bey" presents these artworks alongside findings about the techniques the artist employed in their creation. Based on findings from the "Scientific Analysis and Conservation of Osman Hamdi Bey Paintings" project, completed over two years, this exhibition aims to convey to visitors the artist's paint application techniques, the materials he used, and the restoration work undertaken on his works. Throughout the exhibition, the stages of conservation and scientific analysis work are presented step by step, offering insights into how details beyond what is visible to the naked eye in Osman Hamdi Bey's works can provide a new perspective in evaluating his art. This project represents the most comprehensive study to date in the field of conservation and scientific analysis of Osman Hamdi Bey's works, focusing on six paintings from the artist's collection at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. In the first phase of the project, X-ray imaging technique was used to film the works in order to understand Osman Hamdi Bey's working technique and the condition of the paintings. In the next step, chemical analyses of the elements in the paintings were carried out. Micro paint samples taken from the artworks to examine the structure, color, paint layers and texture of the materials used by the artist were embedded in epoxy-containing capsules to preserve their properties. Paint samples were examined using scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) technique to identify the elements in their composition. Raman spectroscopy was used to generate "fingerprint" graphs of the paints, revealing which pigments they were composed of. Finally, the organic structures of the canvases of the six paintings were examined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Data were classified and characterized using principal component analysis (PCA) methodology.