Simon Agopyan
The Coppersmith's Family
- Dimensions
- 70 × 50 cm
- Viewing
- At the showroom — by appointment
A late Ottoman scene of everyday life in warm earth tones: before his tent, a turbaned coppersmith works at his anvil, a young girl in a green robe stands beside the copper cauldrons on the fire, and a woman in a white headscarf sits nearby — all gathered in the shade of a tree among village houses. The artist's signature appears at the lower right, and the artist's original seal is preserved on the reverse of the canvas; the work is presented in its ornate gilded frame.
About the Artist
Simon Agopyan (1857–1921) was an Ottoman-Armenian painter, born in the Samatya quarter of Istanbul, who devoted his life to portraying the people of his city. Trained under the painter Telemak Ekserciyan, he graduated from the Imperial School of Fine Arts (Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi) in 1888, taking first prize with his graduation piece. He left a wide-ranging body of work that stretches from portraits of sultans and victory scenes of the Ottoman army to Istanbul's everyday figures — its porters and simit sellers; his war paintings are held today in the collection of the Harbiye Military Museum. For generations he taught painting at the Armenian schools of Üsküdar and Taksim; he died in Istanbul in 1921.
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