Celile Hikmet Click for Artist Information

Celile Hanım

Celile Hanım was born in 1880 in Istanbul. Her father Enver Pasha was the Aide de-camp officer of Sultan Abdülhamit. Celile Hanım was brought up by foreign governesses and was educated by her father Enver Pasha, who had spent his youth in Paris and could speak several foreign languages. Enver Pasha was also good friends with the Palace head painter Fausto Zonaro, which enabled Celile Hanım to get acquainted with him and have private lessons. Later she studied art in Rome and Paris. 

Celile Hanım, who is the mother of the poet Nazım Hikmet and the aunt of Oktay Rıfat, focused on portraits, like other female painters of her generation, and produced works on baths and gypsies. Her paintings were mostly in pastel colors, on her friends and relatives. Portraits of his son, grandson and nephew are known as among her most successful works. Also known as Celile Hikmet, the artist stopped authographing her paintings with the surname Hikmet after she divorced Hikmet Bey, the father of poet Nazım Hikmet, in 1918. Celile Hanım, being one of the most active female painters of her period,  died in Ankara in 1956.