in Paris under Gustave Boulanger and Jean-Léon Gérôme, two prominent artists in the French Orientalist school. Despite being trained by Gérôme and Boulanger, and his reproduction of European orientalist motifs, Hamdi's paintings present Ottoman subjects differently than his contemporaries' works, most notably giving them more active and intellectual roles. Hamdi's status as an Ottoman intellectual causes many to see his use of orientalist motifs as subversive and critical of European orientalism. During his lifetime, his artwork was displayed more frequently in Europe than in Turkey. From 1880 on, he exhibited in Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich and London, and started a Salon in Constantinople. His works bear witness to a patient and conscientious method, and may be considered as documents of art history. He was the first who dared break with the Turkish pictorial tradition. Among his works are Prophet’s Tomb at Brussa, Miraculous Springs (Paris 1904), Reading the Coran 1890, Theologian (Patrimony of the Austrian Court). These paintings can be found in private collections and in museums in Vienna, Paris, Liverpool, New York, Berlin and Constantinople (at the Palace of Dolma Bagdsche, at the home of Crown Prince Abdulmedjid). His painting Reading the Coran has been exhibited at “XI BIENNALE INTERNATIONALE DES ANTIQUAIRES” in Paris in 1982 and at the “FINE ART OF THE NETHERLANDS” at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York in November 1982. Museums Berlin “Persian Merchant”, Constantinople “Girl reading” and Liverpool “Young Emir studying”. Select list of publications Les Costumes Populaires de la Turquie en 1873, (Popular Costumes in Turkey in 1873) by Osman Hamdi Bey, Marie de Launay and photographs by Pascal Sébah, Turkey, Commission Impériale Ottomane pour l'Exposition Universelle de Vienne, 1873 Un Ottoman en Orient: Osman Hamdi Bey en Irak, 1869-1871 (An Ottoman in the Orient: Osman Hambdi Bey in Iraq) by Osman Hamdi Bey, Rudolf Lindau, Marie de Launay and Edhem Eldem, c. 1871 Une Nécropole Royale à Sidon: Fouilles de Hamdy Bey, (A Royal Necropolis in Sidon: Excavations by Hamdy Bey) by Osman Hamdi Bey, Paris, E. Leroux, 1892 Le voyage à Nemrud Dağı d'Osman Hamdi Bey et Osgan Efendi (1883): récit de voyage et photographies, (The trip to Nemrud Dağı by Osman Hamdi Bey and Osgan Efendi (1883): travelogue and photographs) by Osman Hamdi Bey, Paris, 1883 Le Tumulus de Nemrut-Dagi, (The Nemrut-Dagi Mound), by Osman Hamdi Bey, Constantinople, F. Lœffler, 1883 Selected paintings Paintings at the Pera Museum, Istanbul Paintings at