Halide Edip Adıvar's painting turned into documentary
ISTANBUL
The last of the documentary series, prepared by the Turkish Embassy in Prague within the scope of the activities celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye, was made in the name of Halide Edip Adıvar, the only woman among the founders of the republic.
An oil painting of Adıvar, painted by Czech painter Alfons Mucha in 1928, turned into a documentary after being exhibited for the first time in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
The oil painting first came to light in Prague and was shown to art lovers as part of the celebrations with the initiatives of Egemen Bağış, the Turkish ambassador to the Czech Republic.
The painting of Adıvar, who also served as modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's translator and secretary and was the only woman to receive the title of “corporal” from the army upon the instructions of Atatürk, was turned into a documentary by Polemik Media with the quotes of Bağış.
In the documentary, Bağış tells the story of the exhibition held in the Czech Senate and the Halide Edip Adıvar painting.
In the Halide Edip Adıvar documentary, Bağış says that Halide Edip and her husband, Adnan Adıvar, went to Prague in 1925 upon the invitation of the Czech painter Alfons Mucha. The Adıvar family exchanged ideas with Mucha on political developments in the world, literature and art, and Mucha was very impressed by Adıvar's ideas and took a photograph of her.
After these conversations, Mucha drew this photograph as a charcoal drawing and later made an oil painting inspired by that charcoal drawing.
Bağış attributes the reason why Mucha was so influenced by Adıvar to the fact that she was one of the first women's rights advocates of her time and that she gives traces of women's rights in her novels and works.
Bağış notes that they had been tracking the painting since he started working as an ambassador in Prague, and as a result of their two-year research, they reached this important painting of Mucha, which came to light with a special exhibition in 2022.
Speaking about the process of obtaining the painting, Bağış said: “Mucha's still living grandson, John Mucha, whose mother was an English, was living in London as the president of the Mucha Foundation, which has facilities in both the Czech Republic and England and manages the copyrights of his grandfather's works. I wrote a letter to him. I mentioned this painting and said that I wanted to see the painting. He gave a very kind answer: 'I cannot come to Prague due to the pandemic. I will invite you when I come. We'll talk about the painting,’ he said, and he really kept his promise. After the post-pandemic travels started, John Mucha invited me to his private family residence.”
Stating that he saw Adıvar’s painting hanging on the largest wall of the living room of the house, Bağış expresses the importance that the Mucha family attaches to the painting with the following words of John Mucha:
“Since it was one of the paintings that my grandfather gave great importance, we kept it in our home, at the Mucha family's house. We neither put it in a museum nor gave it to collections. I will show you this for the first time, but I want you to know that this is not for sale. If your government is considering purchasing, let me tell you at first, this is very valuable to us. It is never for sale because it is a painting that my grandfather attaches great importance.”
After this conversation, Bağış told John Mucha that he only wanted to see the painting and made the following offer: "2023 is the 100th anniversary of our republic, you have kept this painting in your own home until today. Could you reconsider to let this painting be exhibited on the 100th anniversary of our republic?”
Bağış says that John Mucha replied to him by saying that he would transfer the presidency of the Mucha Foundation to his son Marcus Mucha, so he needed to ask him as well.
“Later, we hosted Marcus Mucha and his colleagues for a dinner, tried to introduce Turkish cuisine to the Mucha family, and repeated our request. Then the answer by the Mucha Foundation was yes. The painting was exhibited for the first time at the Czech Senate at an exhibition featuring the works by Alfons Mucha for six months,” Bağış adds.
Also speaking about his relations with the Mucha family, Bağış also mentioned that a special cooperation will take place in the future and that the painting can be exhibited in Türkiye before the end of 2023.
“My wife and I are in close contact with them. They gave serious support and morale to Türkiye during the Feb. 6 earthquakes. They called from England and asked if there was anything they could do. They also sent their support through charities, and we are in constant contact with her son and their foundations."
