Harika (Şazi Sirel) Lifij; On Her Personality as an Artist and Her Paintings
İlkay Canan OkkalıHarika Lifij (Şazi Sirel Lifij) got her education during the Second Constitutional Era (1908). This was a time when the political structure in the Ottoman Empire changed and women became visible and gradually started participating in the public sphere. The process that started with the constitutional monarchy is important in that women could get an education in the field of painting. And Harika got her first painting lessons from Müfide Kadri. Harika is one of the two female artists chosen for the 1918 Exhibition of Vienna. The Vienna Exhibition was notable in terms of being the first one opened by Turkish painters in Europe. As a female artist, the fact that Harika’s paintings were chosen for the exhibition is important for her art and career. She generally painted landscapes, self-portraits and mythological scenes. She painted landscapes and made pochades. In these paintings the colours are subtler and they have a poetic expression. Since she did not date her paintings in general, the chronology is based on the locations she mentioned in her diary and the colours she used. The artist, who carried on painting until 1957, was not as keen on protecting her own paintings as she was on protecting Avni Lifij’s. Approximately 50 of her works are extant and they are either in family or private collections. Like the Fatih Mosque/Ramadan Night painting that we attributed to her during this study, other works of hers might show up in the course of time. In this work, the paintings of Harika Lifij and the reviews of the exhibitions that she participated in are studied so as to define her place in that era.
Harika (Şazi Sirel) Lifij; Sanatçı Kişiliği ve Resimleri Üzerine
İlkay Canan OkkalıHarika Hanım’ın (Şazi Sirel Lifij) eğitim aldığı II. Meşrutiyet dönemi Osmanlı’da siyasi yapının değişimi ile yavaş yavaş kadınların kamusal alana katıldığı ve görünürlük kazandığı yıllara denk gelir. II. Meşrutiyetin ilanı ile başlayan süreç aynı zamanda resim alanında eğitim alan kadınların varlığı açısından da önemlidir. Harika Hanım da ilk resim eğitimini Müfide Kadri’den alır. 1918’de açılan Viyana Sergisi’ne seçilen iki kadın sanatçıdan biridir. Viyana Sergisi, Avrupa’da Türk ressamları tarafından açılan ilk sergi olması bakımından önemlidir. Bu sergiye bir kadın sanatçı olarak resimlerinin seçilmiş olması Harika Hanım’ın sanatı ve kariyeri açısından önemli bir hadisedir. Harika Hanım genellikle manzara resimleri, otoportre ve mitolojik resimler yapar. Manzara ve poşadlarında renkler daha yumuşak ve şiirsel bir ifade kazanmıştır. Harika Hanım’ın resimlerinde genellikle tarih bulunmamasından dolayı anılarında anlattığı mekânlar ve kullandığı renkler göz önünde bulundurularak bir kronoloji oluşturulmaya çalışılmıştır. 1957 yılına kadar resim yapmaya devam eden sanatçı kendi resimlerini koruma konusunda Avni Lifij’in resimlerini korumaktaki gibi titiz davranmamıştır. Günümüze gelen elliye yakın resmi ailesinde ve özel koleksiyonlarda bulunmaktadır. Çalışmamız sırasında ortaya çıkan Fatih Cami/Ramazan Gecesi resmi gibi başka çalışmaları da zaman içerisinde ortaya çıkabilir. Bu çalışmada, Harika Hanım’ın resimleri ve katıldığı sergiler, hakkındaki eleştiri yazıları ile dönemi içerisindeki yeri incelenmiştir.
Harika Lifij was born on 7 April 1896 in Amasya. In the years when Harika Lifij was born, the state was going through a process of educational reforms and new regulations as part of its efforts to survive, however the degree of participation of girls in education was still a matter of discussion. Since there were no schools for girls, she attended a boys’ primary school in Amasya. She came by this opportunity for education by virtue of her father’s position as the head of the National Education Board. Harika Lifij came to Istanbul in 1905 with her family. She received training to become a teacher in Dar-ül Muallimat-ı Aliyye (Teacher Education School for Girls) in Istanbul. Müfide Kadri (1889-1912), one of the first women painters, taught her painting. Müfide Kadri appreciated Harika Lifij’s paintings and advised her not to give up painting. Halide Edib Adıvar (1882-1964), who supported the Constitutional Monarchy project specifically with her early novels, was among her teachers. She graduated from school in 1911 but did not start teaching there right away. During this period, she travelled with her aunt and painted freely. In 1914, she was appointed to one of the new Numune schools as an art teacher. She taught painting in many schools for girls and high schools. In 1920, she started teaching in Istanbul Dar-ül Muallimat (Girls’ Teacher School), from where she graduated. While teaching, she also followed the contemporary painting exhibitions. In 1917, she met Avni Lifij, who at the time was a juror in the Exhibition of Vienna. For this exhibition, Harika made a mythological painting called İlahlar Eğleniyor (Deities are Amused). Meanwhile she completed another painting called Ahenk (Harmony).
Harika Lifij started participating in the significant exhibitions of the period. She participated in the 1st Galatasaray Exhibition in 1916 and the 2nd Galatasaray Exhibition in 1917, held at İstanbul Beyoğlu Galatasaraylılar Dormitory, War Paintings and Others/The Şişli Workshop Painting Exhibition in the years 1917-1918 (December-January), and the Exhibition of Vienna in 1918 at Vienna University. Harika attended the first painting exhibition of the Republican era in the Turkish Hearth building on 19 October 1923 in Ankara. Her works in the First Ankara Painting Exhibition were highly praised by the critics.
She also attended a Painting Workshop where Mr. Muazzez held classes. She attended some classes in İnas Sanayi-i Nefise School as a guest student. She closely followed her teacher Halide Edib holding meetings to protest the invasion of Istanbul and mobilising the people for liberation and to save the country. With the passing of time, Harika would become a versatile Turkish woman of the Republican era, closely following the political events of the period. The influence of the training Harika Lifij received can be seen in the progress of her style. One of her early teachers, Müfide Kadri, was an artist representing the first generation of Turkish female painters. She learned the significance of figures and colours from Müfide Kadri and the impressionist technique from Avni Lifij; however, a more classical style can be observed in her own paintings. In her landscape paintings it can be seen that she depicted various parts of Istanbul and especially Yeşilköy. She worked with Avni Lifij in nature. During these trips, she got information from Avni Lifij to improve her painting technique. Painting was the common interest of Avni Lifij and Harika. Although not many of her paintings are known in the present day, from the paintings obtained, it can be understood that Harika Lifij liked to paint mythological themes. It can be observed that she preferred to use nature sketches in the background of the mythological subject. In her self-portrait, with a realistic approach, she depicted herself with a serious expression. Among her strong social-psychological stance with her posture and facial expression, it is significant as a documentary of her time. This painting is also an illustration of her western identity as a female artist in the beginning of the 20th century. When she was uncertain about colour, she drew the pattern on another paper and tried to experiment with various colours on the pattern. After Avni Lifij’s death on 2 June 1927, she devoted her life to protecting the art and the rights of Avni Lifij. In this regard, she organised an extensive retrospective exhibition of Avni Lifij’s works.
To date, many studies have been conducted on Turkish female painters by many researchers. Among those, there are no studies that examine Harika Lifij by herself. Particularly at the stage of building up her own language of painting, she separates from the other female painters of her time with her mythological subjects. The artist writes in her memoirs that she continued painting in form of sketching until 1957. After that, she completely stopped painting because of the difficulties in transferring the paintings, but she continued teaching. In 1951, at the age of 55, she retired from teaching, which she passionately had done for thirty-seven years. In her late years, she wrote her memoirs in various art magazines, such as Sanat Çevresi, Hayat Tarih ve Edebiyat, and Ankara Sanat. These memoirs are mostly about the formation of Avni Lifij’s paintings and her reminiscences with Avni Lifij. This study examines the identity, biography and samples from the paintings of Harika Lifij who lived in Istanbul in the 20th century, and who was one of the most significant female painters and art teachers of her era.
