Nusret Çolpan

Nusret Çolpan (October 1, 1952 – May 31, 2008) was a Turkish painter, architect and miniaturist, renowned for his paintings in Ottoman miniature style depicting cities around the world, particularly Istanbul. He painted over 300 miniatures in his 30-year career.

Life and work

Nusret Çolpan was born in 1952 in Bandirma; he attended high school in Zincirlikuyu Meslek Lisesi and worked as a waiter and at a newsstand. Çolpan's talent for painting was recognized before he moved to Istanbul. He became locally recognised for his microscopically detailed drawings of mosques on wooden spoons.

On the advice of Dr Suheyl Unver (to whom he was introduced by his uncle Ali Oztaylan) he studied in the Department of Architecture at Yıldız Technical University. There he was taught by Unver and Azade Akar, two of the leading authorities in Turkish illumination and miniature painting of the time.

Subsequently, he worked on Ottoman illumination in a small atelier with his closest friend Semih Irtes in the Fatih district.

He travelled extensively in Europe and, after his return to Turkey, married Husniye Çolpan in 1979. In the same year, he opened a small interior decoration atelier, also in Fatih, and continued to paint. An interview with him was published in the Wall Street Journal in 1984. At the same time, his paintings started to be known and appreciated more widely.

He painted over 250 watercolor miniatures, mostly of cities, such as New York