Faces of a Nation

The portrait collection at Istanbul’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum offers a contemplative journey through Ottoman and early Republican Turkey. This slow art video invites you to linger on the nuanced expressions, ceremonial attire, and intimate gazes captured by master painters such as Osman Hamdi Bey, Halil Paşa, and Şeker Ahmed Paşa. Each portrait reflects a moment of cultural transition nbetween empire and modernity, tradition and individuality. Let the stillness of these faces draw you into a quiet dialogue across time.