Osman Hamdi Bey was an esteemed artist, archaeologist, museologist, and the first mayor of Kadıköy, Istanbul, who pioneered innovation and modernity in Ottoman cultural and artistic life. He was the son of Ibrahim Ethem Pasha of Greek origin, who was recruited as a young child. İbrahim Ethem Pasha was raised by Captain-General Hüsrev Pasha, educated in France, and became the first mining engineer of the Ottoman Empire and a grand vizier. His brother, Halil Ethem Bey was a chemist and philosopher, and another brother, İsmail Galip Bey was a numismatist.

Born on December 30, 1842, in Istanbul, Osman Hamdi Bey won the praise of the people around him with his charcoal drawings when he was only 16 years old. During his trip to Vienna, İbrahim Ethem Pasha became interested in exhibitions and museums. His father sent him to Paris to study law so that Osman Hamdi Bey could study abroad, just like him. In addition to his legal education, he spends 12 years in Paris as an apprentice in the art studios of Gustave Boulanger and Jean Léon Gérôme, two well-known painters of the period. Therefore, he received a good art education from these master painters. He created the first generation of Turkish painting together with two valuable painters who were trained in Paris like him.

Osman Hamdi Bey sent three of his works ("Zeybeğin Ölümümü", "Ambush Zeybek" and "Çingenelerin Mola") to the Paris World Exhibition in 1867. When he returned to the country two years later, he married his first wife, Marie, whom he had met in Paris. Following his return, he was assigned many times to government offices abroad, but he never stopped painting throughout this whole process. He painted paintings recording the cityscape of Baghdad and was interested in the archaeology and history of Baghdad.

When he returned from Baghdad, he was assigned as a commissioner at the international exhibition organized in Vienna. During this time, he met his second wife Marie. Osman Hamdi Bey retired after the Ottoman-Russian War and devoted himself to painting and art in his house in Eskihisar. However, in 1881, he was appointed as the director of the Museum-i Hümayun (Imperial Museum) by the Sultan. In this position, Osman Hamdi Bey, in order to develop and enrich museology, pioneered laws preventing the export of works of art unearthed in foreign excavations and state-sponsored archaeological excavations. Osman Hamdi Bey, who laid the foundations of scientific archaeology in the Ottoman Empire, conducted studies on Mount Nemrut, Muğla, and Lebanon. In these places, he found the Temple of Hecate, the ancient city of Lagina, and the Sarcophagus of Alexander, which is considered one of the most valuable works in the archaeology world. In order to exhibit all these findings, the construction of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum was started under the leadership of Osman Hamdi Bey and opened to visitors in 1891 under his direction.
While he was conducting archaeological excavations, he was appointed as the director of the first fine arts school in the Ottoman Empire, Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi (now the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan University). Together with the architect Vallaury, he designed the school's building and personally contributed to the establishment of the academic staff. This institute, which will enable Turkish students to receive art education without leaving the country, opens for education in 1883.

In addition to all these duties, Osman Hamdi Bey continued to paint. In addition to his most well-known painting "The Tortoise Trainer", he produced countless valuable examples of Turkish painting art such as "The Arms Dealer", "Woman with Mimosa", "Two Musical Girls", "The Lady of Istanbul", "Coffee House", "Girl Picking Lilacs". Her paintings depict Turkish culture, the life of Ottoman women in the outside world, and the conflicts between East and West, love and faith, life and death. Osman Hamdi Bey was the first artist to use figural composition in Turkish art.

In 1910, he passed away in his mansion in Kuruçeşme and was buried in Eskihisar. His various works have been on display for years at the Pera Museum, the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, and London museums.