“The trees appear almost as free explorations of dynamism and movement for their own sake. If they are a homage to Brueghel, they are also an anticipation of Fahrelnissa’s later abstract kinetics.”

A. LAÏDI-HANIEH, FAHRELNISSA ZEID: PAINTER OF INNER WORLDS, ART BOOKS, 2017

Fahrelnissa Zeid was a key figure of modernism, in Turkish art like in many other aspects of her life. One of the first women to study fine arts in Turkey, her works were often said to feature intricate blends of Islamic and Byzantine patterns infused with Western modernist and abstractionist inspirations. Yet, this vision was deemed Eurocentric by most of her pairs, while the artist revendicated only a universalist vision of art making (Özpınar 2017, p.1). After marrying a member of the Iraqi royal family and first Ambassador of Iraq to Germany, Zeid went on to pursue her artistic career throughout the world. In the course of her long career, Fahrelnissa Zeid explored many styles, techniques and materials, evolving as she moved from Istanbul to Berlin, or from Baghdad to Paris and London.

The Blue Tree was painted in 1943, a period during which Zeid was still based in Istanbul, and where she held her first solo exhibition a year later in her own home. During this period, Zeid cultivated a deep fascination for Dutch Renaissance painters such as Jan Brueghel and Bruegel the Elder. Many of the landscapes she painted at the time retain the intensity of human activity that characterized the complex compositions of Dutch masters, as visible in The Tree,1943, A Winter Day, Istanbul, 1944 and Polones koy (Polish Village on the Bosphorus,),1944 (Laidi-Hanieh 2017, p.84).

LEFT: COVER OF ADILA LAÏDI-HANIEH’S BOOK, FAHRELNISSA ZEID PAINTER OF INNER WORLDS PUBLISHED IN 2017,
RIGHT: WHICH REFERENCES THE BLUE TREE ON PAGE 235.

These paintings are dominated by the same tree designs, the tentacular branches of which seem to come straight of Brueghel’s Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap (1565). However, Zeid does not merely borrow Brueghel’s tree motif, she reinterprets it to match the atmosphere in each of her paintings. From The Tree (1943) emanates a dark aura, while in Polones koy, the huge blue tree seems to watch over a lively village and its inhabitants, vibrant source of life and prosperity. Imbued with similar vital energies, the present work is indicative of the artist’s gradual transition towards abstraction, the branches made of undulated lines roaming the canvas, enlightened by a bluish glow conferring a mystical atmosphere to the painting. Despite its ethereal, dreamlike ambiance, this work conveys a strong sense of place, for it is known to be inspired by a specimen from her Buyukdere garden (Laidi-Hanieh 2017, p.84). As such, this work seems filled with memories from the artist’s life in Istanbul, as the intermingling of turquoise and cobalt blues in foliage entanglements might remind one of the Iznik’s designs lining some of the most beautiful monuments of the city. Istabul, as the crossroad of religions, traditions and cultures, was undeniably a potent source of inspiration for Zeid’s early practice.