Abstract:

Following the establishment of the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum in 1937, a group of important figures of the Paris School were taken to the museum collection. Selahattin Refik Sırmalı Bey, who is the owner of the leading decoration store of the period, took an active role in the formation of a foreign collection in the museum. It is also known that Léopold-Lévy, who served as the head of painting department at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, was a contact for the introduction of these paintings brought from Paris by Selahattin Refik. This initiative of Lévy, who was assigned to the organization of the museum after his arrival in Istanbul, made a significant contribution to the formation of foreign collections, and there is no indication that these works were purchased from Selahattin Refik Sırmalı Bey in the museum records. The collection involves the leading names of modern painting like Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Utrillo, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Andre Derain, as well as Charles Despiau (sculptor), Eduard Kayser, A.Dunayer de Segonzac with their prints. Foreign artists in the collection are the representatives of modern painting of early 20th century. Their works in the collection were in the agendum of Turkish press of that period and during the Second World War they provided a link to follow modernism in art for Turkish painters who were not able to visit western art centres.

Keywords: