The Tortoise Trainer
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About The Tortoise Trainer
The old man has brought a flute and a drum. His five students have brought their shells—and all the time in the world.
The tortoises crawl across the tiled floor, eating leaves while their trainer bends toward them in a long red robe. He does not look surprised by their speed. This lesson may take a while.
Osman Hamdi Bey painted himself as the trainer and placed the scene in an upper room of the Green Mosque in Bursa. Years earlier, he had seen a magazine picture describing trainers who used music to make tortoises move in lines and climb.
Many people read the painting as a joke about how slowly change can happen. That is a possible interpretation, not a secret answer we can prove.
The visible story is already delightful: one patient musician, five unhurried tortoises, beautiful old tiles, and a lesson in which nobody can rush anybody else. By the end, it is hard not to wonder: who is training whom to be patient?
Artwork details
- Artist
- Osman Hamdi Bey
- Date
- 1906, first version
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 221.5 × 120 cm
- Collection
- Pera Museum
- Object number
- 1906 Salon no. 783
Sources & rights
Osman Hamdi Bey, The Tortoise Trainer, 1906, first version. Pera Museum, Salon no. 783. Image via Wikimedia Commons (Google Art Project), Public Domain.
