Landscape with Bridge

Hikmet Onat was born in Istanbul and entered the Naval College in 1899, graduating as a lieutenant in 1903. He went on to study at the School of Fine Arts, and after graduating in 1910 won a state scholarship to study in Europe and continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. There he attended the studio of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924). When the First World War broke out in 1914 he returned to Turkey and taught art at several secondary schools, including the Royal School (Galatasaray High School) in Istanbul. He became a studio teacher at the School of Fine Arts in 1915, and remained there until his retirement in 1949. He is one of the so-called ‘1914 Generation’ of Turkish artists.

The 1914 Generation was a group of young Ottoman artists who went to Europe to study art in 1909-1910—principally at the Julian Academy in Paris—but were obliged to return home at the outbreak of the First World War, hence becoming known as the '1914 Generation'. This group included leading painters like İbrahim Çallı, Nazmi Ziya, Avni Lifij, Feyhaman Duran and Namık İsmail who played an important part in the spread of such genres as landscape and still life in Turkish painting. A striking aspect of their work is the way their paintings reflect their own impressions and personal interpretations. Owing to their pure colours and sensitivity to light, these painters are sometimes described as the Turkish Impressionists. Almost all of them were among the first Turkish teachers at the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul and so were active in training the next generations of Turkish artists.