He attended Vefa Lisesi, Turkey's first non-military high school,[1] then studied at the Civil Service Academy (now the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University).[1] He studied with the Italian Orientalist painter, Salvatore Valeri and the sculptor Osgan Efendi,[2] but had some difficulty adapting to the school's conservative teaching methods and came into conflict with Osman Hamdi Bey, the Director.A meeting with the French painter Paul Signac, who visited Istanbul while sailing around the Mediterranean, may have influenced his desired style.After travelling in Germany and Austria, he returned home in 1914, settling in İzmir, where he found employment at the Teacher's College[1] and worked as an inspector for the provincial Directorate of Education.[2] This much exertion in the August heat led to a case of extreme exhaustion, from which he never fully recovered, dying of a heart attack not long after.