Christos SIMATOS (20th century) - Lot 54

Christos SIMATOS (20th century) H.R.H. Princess Zehra Hanzade of Turkey (1923-1998) Head and front. Mixed media on paper 25 x 25.7 cm Signed, located and dated: Cannes 1949 Necla Hibetullah Sultan (1926-2006) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the son of the last caliph Abdulmejid II and Şehsuvar Hanım. His mother was Sabiha Sultan, daughter of Sultan Mehmed VI and Nazikeda Kadın. She had two sisters, Neslişah Sultan , five years older than her and Zehra Hanzade Sultan , three years older than her. Necla spent her childhood in France. Behzade Kalfa looked after her during her youth. As Behzade had a strained relationship with her grandfather, she did everything she could to turn him against her grandmother Şehsuvar, but despite this negativity, she took good care of her. In 1938, Necla, her parents and sisters moved to Egypt. By 1940, due to the Second World War, Necla and her family were impoverished, as Abdulmejid was unable to send them money. In the same year, her sisters married Egyptian princes, Neslişah married Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, and Hanzade married Prince Muhammad Ali, respectively. In 1943, Necla married Egyptian Prince Amr Ibrahim in Cairo, Egypt . The three sisters were thus married into the same dynasty and became known as "princesses of Egypt and princesses of the Ottoman Empire". Their only child, Prince Osman Rifat, was born in Cairo on May 20, 1951. In 1953, Necla, her husband and their son moved to Switzerland, following the proclamation of Egypt as a republic in 1952. Necla Sultan died on October 6, 2006, at the age of eighty, in Madrid , Spain . On October 16, her body was transported to Istanbul. The funeral took place at the Bebek Mosque, in the presence of her elder sister Neslişah, her son Osman Rifat and other members of the Ottoman dynasty. She was buried alongside her mother and elder sister Hanzade in the Aşiyan Asri cemetery, Istanbul. Provenance: collection of HRH Prince Osman Ibrahim of Egypt (1951-2025), son of HRH Amr Ibrahim of Egypt and HRH Princess Nejla Hibetullah Sultan (Necla Osmanoğlu) of Turkey, granddaughter of the last Caliph Abdulmejid II and Sultan Mehmed VI.