‘Yusuf Franko depicted not only Beyoğlu’s gentlemen in his caricature album, but also resplendent women of high-society circles.’ ANAMED Editor and Publications Coordinator Özge Ertem writes about the women of Yusuf Franko…
Yusuf Franko depicted not only Beyoğlu’s gentlemen in his caricature album, but also resplendent women of high-society circles: Sarah Bernhardt, standing on the stage (later she will greet the crowd amidst grand applause); Madame Stékoulis, writing the book of ‘Life’, while dancing in another caricature, both intelligent and cheerful, calm and lively; Mademoiselle Stavro, carrying the dark, black roses with a powerful and elegant, grotesque manner; and other strong women characters, seeming to “have secrets”and making Yusuf Franko’s other characters play. The women of Yusuf Franko…
One of them is more silent, though; the woman who is maybe the closest to Yusuf Franko, his sister Madam Naum Paşa, who can find a place in the album only with her husband’s name. Madam Naum Paşa was organizing musical attendances in her residence for Beyoğlu circles and was singing in those events. In his caricature, Yusuf Franko depicted her singing as well. Her song today reminds of a gloom from the Beirut days of the family, long lost in oblivion. The younger brother Fuad Franko, also an artist’s soul, playing the piano while his sister singing, died at a young age in Beirut where he had accompanied his sister and brother-in-law. Madam Naum Paşa must have mourned for this younger brother, who might have resembled her and whom she coddled.
Yusuf Franko’s women were as flamboyant characters of the Beyoğlu social circles as the men in his album. At all events, they were strong, colorful and unique people, even when they were depicted in black and white, and they had no names. However, “beyond the stage”, in their inner worlds and in the flow of life, they were much more than that.