Halil Pasha (painter)

His family was originally from Rhodes and his father, Selim, was one of the founders of the Turkish Military Academy.

[1] Upon graduating, students were normally commissioned to become teachers at military schools, but he insisted on being allowed to continue his studies in Paris.

In 1880, his father finally agreed, and he spent eight years working in the studios of Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Two years later, however, at the beginning of the Second Constitutional Era, he chose to retire with the rank of Colonel and become a private art teacher.

During the Turkish War of Independence, he went to Egypt at the invitation of Abbās Ḥilmī Pasha, the former (and last) Khedive.