İbrahim Çallı, 1882-1960

İbrahim Çallı was born in Denizli. After graduating from The School of Fine Arts, he went to Paris to continue his studies at Fernand Cormon’s studio. He became such a celebrated artist that a generation (also known as the 1914 Generation) was given his name. Like his contemporaries, he was influenced by impressionism during his stay in France and used its color and lighting techniques when painting scenes of daily life and portraits. He developed an original style by combining scenes of modern life endorsed by Republican ideology with the formal characteristics of impressionism.

Although he dealt with many subject matters, Çallı’s most famous paintings are those of women. In “Portrait of Fatma (Cimcoz) Barşal”, Çallı gave such attention to women in his work because the new Turkish Republic also considered women to be important. İbrahim Çallı depicted women replete with femininity and occasionally with erotic magnetism: they are not presented as the object but rather the subject of his paintings.