The Tortoise Trainer is an oil-on-canvas painting created by the Turkish artist
Osman Hamdi Bey between 1906 and 1907. It depicts a
dervish contemplating several tortoises roaming the floor of an upper-storey room in what may be the
Green Mosque in
Bursa. He wears a skullcap wrapped round with a sash, and a long, red robe with embroidered border. In his left hand he holds a
ney and on his back hangs a small
kettledrum; he is attempting to train the animals with these musical instruments rather than by the use of force. In the painting, Hamdi satirises the slow and ineffective attempts at
reform in the Ottoman Empire. The work is now located in the
Pera Museum in Istanbul.
Painting credit: Osman Hamdi Bey