Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum “İstanbul Resim ve Heykel Müzesi” was built on September 20, 1937. And it’s Turkey’s first Fine Arts. Turkey holds the most important collection of modern Turkish painting; and is the case in many big cities in Turkey’s art museums and Art Galleries, the source of States.
History
The building, where the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum was put into service; was designed and built-in 1856 by Garabet Amira Balyan and Nigoğos Balyan; who were the architects of the Dolmabahçe Palace as the Crown Office. The proclamation of the Republic after the establishment of the new regime. It was followed by the European cities Louvre Museum, following the model of a structure symbolizing the toppled regime. It decided to transform it into a public art museum as a symbol of the new nation-states. Thus, Dolmabahce Palace, the Crown Office, and Ataturk’s orders; were allocated to the Fine Arts Academy in order to establish a Painting and Sculpture Museum.
As a result of the efforts of Dikmen; who was its first director, the museum, which became the club of the intellectuals of the period and a part of the education life of the academy students, has become a cultural institution open to everyone. The museum, whose number of visitors reaches 300-400 people per day; excluding students who come in groups of 500-600 people, II. It maintained its dynamism until it closed due to World War II.
The exhibition became famous between 1890-1950, among them, Signac, Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris, Matisse, Paul Gauguin included 50 works by 50 French artists, including important names in modern art. The exhibition attracted great attention, the number of visitors exceeded 40 thousand.
The museum building belonging to the National Palaces Department was restored in 2007 and the museum was closed. In the section where the restoration was completed, an exhibition called “Exhibition of the Exhibition ” was held in 2009. This exhibition was a symbolic repetition of the museum’s opening exhibition in 1937.
Collection
There are 10140 paintings and 651 sculptures in the museum collection, where the works of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century are more comprehensive. In addition, the collection includes 10 icons, 107 ceramics, and 79 calligraphy works. Works of 18th and 19th-century Western artists and artists of our age such as André Derain, Levy, Matisse, Picasso, and Utrillo are also within the scope of the collection.
Some artworks from the museum collection; which were developed with the works awarded in the State Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions, purchases, and donations; were sent to the State Galleries of places such as İzmir, Ankara, Antalya, Balıkesir, Bursa, Yalvaç, thus the museum became the source of art museums and galleries in other cities of the country. The last work was purchased from the museum in 1980.