Conservation of the Oil Painting on Cardboard Titled “One of My First Paintings…” By Painter Hoca Ali Rıza

Abstract

One of the pioneer painters of Turkish painting history, Hoca Ali Rıza (1858-1930) is a painter who created paintings with his own style and he is famous for his paintings made with oil, watercolor, charcoal, pastel and especially charcoal pencil techniques. The “Hoca Ali Rıza Bey” collection in Süleymaniye Manuscript Library was created with donations made by his student Ord. Prof. Dr. A. Süheyl Ünver (1898-1986). This collection includes various notes, notebooks, photographs, calligraphy and illumination examples, watercolor, oil and charcoal drawings. This collection, which is of great importance in terms of Turkish painting history, includes 146 works that have been classified to date and these works are located in the Ord. Prof. Dr. A. Süheyl Ünver Research Center in the library.

This study focuses on the conservation, analysis and mounting method of Hoca Ali Rıza’s oil painting on cardboard titled “From My First Paintings…” (collection fixture no. 146). Since the painting was made on cardboard, the applications were made with paper conservation techniques and materials. In the analyses conducted with XRF and Raman spectroscopy, it was determined that Painter Hoca Ali Rıza used vermilion red, Prussian blue and lead white pigments, helping to understand his color palette. Accordingly, thanks to the specially prepared passe-partout and mounting method for the work, the work was made ready for storage and exhibition at any time.