Sami Yetik Click for Artist Information

Sami Yetik

SAMİ YETİK (1878 - 1945) 

Sami Yetik was born in Istanbul in 1878. With the encouragement of Mehmet Ali Laga, a classmate at Kuleli Military High School, and the encouragement of Osman Nuri Pasha, who was an art teacher while attending Mülkiye İdadi, he started his first painting works. He met Hoca Ali Rıza at Harbiye, so his first artistic enthusiasm turned towards a conscious choice. He worked with Hoca Ali Rıza in Sanayi-i Nefise in 1900. He was sent to Paris in 1910 with the special permission of Yetik Mahmut Şevket Pasha, one of the founders of the Turkish Painters Society. He continued to Academie Julian and Ecole Pigie. He was trained in Jean Paul Laurens' workshop, where he got rid of the influence of the classical school and got excited about impressionism. After returning home, he was appointed as an art teacher to the Kuleli Military High School. In addition to his work as an officer, he took part in the Edirne front during the Balkan War. He and his childhood friend Mehmet Ali Laga were taken prisoner by the Bulgarians in the Balkan War. During his captivity, he established relations with Bulgarian painters. After escaping from captivity, he resumed his duty during the First World War years. During these wars he participated, while serving in the line of fire, he continued to paint, study and sketch whenever he had the opportunity. The studies he created in these years constitute the basis for his works and form the basis of his great compositions later on.