Fatma Nazlı Ecevit (4 January 1900 – 14 August 1985) was a Turkish school teacher and a realist-impressionist painter. She was the mother of Prime Minister

Bülent Ecevit Mustafa Bülent Ecevit (; 28 May 1925 – 5 November 2006) was a Turkish politician, statesman, poet, writer, scholar, and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of Turkey four times between 1974 and 2002. He served as prime minister in 197 ...

Early life

Fatma Nazlı Ecevit was born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, as

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

the then capital of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, on 4 January 1900. Her father was Emin Sargut, a colonel, her paternal grandfather Salih Pasha, a major general () and her maternal grandfather Kirat Pasha, an aide to the

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to Dissolution of the Ottoman Em ...

She was of

Bosniak The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

ancestry. After she graduated from the Çapa Teacher's School for Girls () in 1915,

Mihri Müşfik Mihri is a word of Turkish language origin, and it may refer to: * Mihri Pektaş (1895–1979), Turkish school teacher and one of the first 18 female parliament members of Turkey * Mihri Belli (1915–2011), Turkish socialist politician * Mihri Hat ...

, one of the first Turkish women painters, encouraged her to develop her interest in painting. She went on to study at the Fine Arts School for Girls () between 1915 and 1922, where she was taught by Ömer Adil, and joined the workshop of

Feyhaman Duran Feyhaman Duran (Sept. 17, 1886 – May 6, 1970) was a Turkish artist. Biography He was born in Istanbul in 1886. After graduating from Galatasaray High School, he was sent to Paris by Halim Paşa to study painting. He became a student of Jean- ...

. As the graduating examinations for the Fine Arts School for Girls were cancelled due to the

Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...

, she obtained a teaching certificate.

Years as teacher

Nazlı was employed as a painting teacher at

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

Junior High School for Girls. She then followed her father to

Kastamonu Kastamonu, formerly Kastamone/Castamone () and Kastamon/Castamon (), is a city in northern Turkey. It is the seat of Kastamonu Province and Kastamonu District.

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, and suspended her painting career for 25 years. She first taught in Kastamonu, and later in

Bolu Bolu is a city in northern Turkey, and administrative center of the Bolu Province and of Bolu District,İzmit İzmit () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 480 km2, and its population is 376,056 (2022). The capital of Kocaeli Province, it is located at the Gulf of İzmit in the Sea ...

. She married in 1924 and moved to

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. The next year, she gave birth to a son, Bülent, who went on to become a political party leader and four times

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. She worked as an art teacher in the Ankara Teachers' School of Music, the forerunner of the

Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory The Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory (), the first conservatory to be founded in the Republic of Turkey, was established in 1936 by a directive of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The conservatory is part of Hacettepe University. History ...

. She also taught in the Istanbul Master Junior High School. Her career as teacher lasted for nineteen years.

Painting career

Nazlı resumed painting in 1947. She had shown her works at the Galatasaray Expositions during her student years and resumed doing so at group exhibitions after 1947. She also held private exhibitions. During her student years, she painted

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

and nudes. From 1948 to 1975, her works were displayed almost every year at the State Art and Sculpture Exhibition. Her works present a realist and

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

style that she developed in the Fine Arts Union, of which she was a member and for some time also its chairperson. Her style resembles that of Turkish painters of the 1930s' generation like

İbrahim Çallı İbrahim Çallı (13 July 1882 – 22 May 1960), popularly known as Çallı İbrahim, was a Turkish painter and educator. He was a founding members of the Society of Ottoman Painters. He trained many young painters as a professor at Mimar Sinan ...

, Şeref Akdik, Ali Karsan and Adil Doğançay and she had a powerful sense of design. After 1947, she painted mostly

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

and

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s, combining the soft and colourful sensitivity of the impressionist style in landscape paintings of Salacak, the

Bosphorus The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait ( ; , colloquially ) is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul, Turkey. The Bosporus connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and forms one of the continental bo ...

in Istanbul and

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

with a realist look at local atmosphere. She worked in

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturat ...

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

crayon A crayon (or wax pastel) is a stick of pigmented wax used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from pastels, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry binder (material), binder such as gum arabic, and from oil pastels, where the binder is a ...

and charcoal. Her impressionism was based on a tradition transmitted via military painters in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Health issues and death

By June 1985, Nazlı was hospitalised in Istanbul, where she lived, due to

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

and

urinary The human urinary system, also known as the urinary tract or renal system, consists of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, and the urethra. The purpose of the urinary system is to eliminate waste from the body, regulate blood volume and blood pressu ...

problems. Later, she was transferred to Ankara, where her son

resided. On 14 August 1985, she died at the age of 85 in the hospital of

Hacettepe University Hacettepe University () is a public research university in Ankara, Turkey. It was established on 8 July 1967. It is ranked first among the Turkish universities by University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2021. The university has two main c ...

, where she was being treated. She was interred at Cebeci Asri Cemetery following a funeral service at the Hacı Bayram Mosque.

Works

Her notable paintings include: * ''Keriman Hanım'ın Portresi'' (''Portrait of Kerman Hanım''), (1922)

İstanbul State Art and Sculpture Museum The Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum () is a museum in the Tophane area of European Istanbul, Turkey. It is part of the large Galataport complex. The museum was originally housed in the mansion of the crown prince attached to the Dolmabahç ...

* ''Çiçekler'' (''Flowers''), İstanbul State Art and Sculpture Museum * ''Çamlıcan'dan Görünüm'' (''View from Çamlıca'') * ''Balkonlu Manzara'' (''Landscape with Balcony'') * ''Bebek'' (''Baby''), (sold in April 2000 for approx. US$19,200) * ''Salacakta Kız Kulesi'' (''

Maiden's Tower __NOTOC__ The Maiden's Tower (), also known as Leander's Tower (''Tower of Leandros'') since the Byzantine period, is a tower on a small islet at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait, from the coast of Üsküdar in Istanbul, Turk ...

at Salacak''), (sold in June for approx. US$23,200) * ''Boğaziçi'' (''Bosporus''), (1954) (sold in June 2000 for approx. US$8,000)

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

had one of her oil paintings named Salacak hung in the office building of the prime minister in July 2003 after he took office in the March of that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecevit, Nazli 1900 births Painters from Istanbul Turkish schoolteachers 20th-century Turkish painters Realist painters Turkish Impressionist painters 1985 deaths Burials at Cebeci Asri Cemetery Nazli Turkish people of Bosniak descent Academic staff of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory 20th-century Turkish women painters