Still Life with Roses

Born in Istanbul, Hüseyin Zekai Paşa was a painter from a military background who studied at the Military Academy and became a student of the artist Hoca Ali Rıza. His painting entitled The Bosphorus on a Night of Festive Illuminations dated 1882 was admired by Sultan Abdülhamid, who appointed him as assistant to court painter Şeker Ahmed Paşa. Following the death of Şeker Ahmed Paşa, Hüseyin Zekai Paşa succeeded him as court painter and master of ceremonies for foreign guests. He was a keen antiques collector, and in 1913 published a book on antiquities and ancient monuments entitled Mübeccel Hazineler (Esteemed Treasures). He was involved in establishing the military museum in the Church of St Eirene.

Hüseyin Zekai Paşa was one of the military painters, a group composed of artists who trained at Ottoman military schools, where the teaching followed western methods. These artists can be regarded as the initiators of the western-style of painting in Ottoman Turkey in the nineteenth century. At the military schools technical drawing and perspective were taught to enable the students to make military topographical maps, so the young military painters learned this skill early on in their career. These painters often preferred to depict landscapes and still lifes rather than human figures because of a traditional reluctance to depict human figures in the Ottoman period. Portraits of sultans were an exception. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these portraits were mostly made by Ottoman Christian artists or by foreign painters.

Hüseyin Zekai Paşa was also one of the painters by appointment to the Ottoman court, a position created during the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid (r. 1839-1861) that lasted until the end of the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876-1909). These painters selected by the sultan held various posts at the palace, serving not only as painters but also as art instructors, head of court protocol and/or as the official in charge of relations with foreign painters and guests.