Cemal Tollu

Cemal Tollu (1899 – 1968)

Cemal Tollu, was born on April 19th, 1899 in Istanbul, as the eldest child of a family with five children. His father was an engineer named Sait Bey, and his mother was Hayriyet Hanım. He spent his childhood in Damascus and Diyarbakir due to his father’s work. He worked as an apprentice at the Hejaz Railway. He received his first art lessons from a retired sergeant-major during this time. In 1919, he returned to Istanbul and enrolled at the Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (Academy of Fine Arts), but due to the occupation of Istanbul by enemies, he had to interrupt his studies and attended the Zabit Namzetleri Talimgah in Ankara. After receiving military training there, he was sent to the cavalry regiment in Konya with the rank of cavalry lieutenant in 1921. He was discharged from the army in 1923 and worked as a wagon repairman in Edirne between 1923 and 1925.

After the end of the Turkish War of Independence, he returned to Istanbul in 1926 and resumed his education. After completing his school as a middle school art teacher, Cemal Sait taught in Elazig and Erzincan until 1929, and then went to Munich and Paris with his family’s support to improve his art. He worked with famous artists such as Andre Lhote, Hans Hoffmann, Fernand Leger, and Marcel Gromaire during the year he spent in Europe between 1931 and 1932. While in Paris, he participated in the fourth exhibition of the Independent Painters and Sculptors Association with a portrait of a woman. After returning from Paris, he was appointed as a teacher at the Erzincan Military Middle School, and he held this position until 1935. Cemal Sait opened his first exhibition in Elazig in 1932 after returning to Turkey. In 1933, he was among the founders of the D Group.

The group opened its first exhibition in a space arranged by the cousin of Tollu, the governor of Beyoglu, at the Mimoza Hat Shop in Narmanli Han. Cemal Tollu participated in all domestic and foreign exhibitions of the group. In 1935, he became the director of the Anatolian Civilizations Museum (formerly the Ankara Archaeology Museum). During this period, he was influenced by the kunt forms of Hittite reliefs. In 1937, he was appointed as Leopold Levy’s assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts and went to Istanbul. He got married the same year. He worked as a mythology teacher and head of the painting department at the academy. His interest in mythology, which was instilled in him by Ahmet Haşim when he was a student, led him to publish a book titled “Mythology” in 1957. As a result of his work in the Antalya and Burdur regions during the “Country Tours” organized by the Republican People’s Party (CHP) from 1938 onwards, he turned to landscape painting. He went to Paris for the second time in 1939 and drew views of Paris.