. Not a long time later, he lost his mother to a grippe epidemic

Epidemic

In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...

. His father made a second marriage with a very young woman, however Fikret Mualla did not accept his stepmother.

Years in Europe

After the high school, his father sent him to Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 to study engineering. Fikret Mualla left Switzerland soon to settle in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. The childhood accident, leaving Mualla with a bad physical condition, contributed to his erratic personality and mental disorder later in his adult years. He was institutionalized a number of times, from alcohol dependency and extreme paranoia

Paranoia

Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...

. In 1928, he was hospitaled in Berlin due to delirium

Delirium

Delirium or acute confusional state is a common and severe neuropsychiatric syndrome with core features of acute onset and fluctuating course, attentional deficits and generalized severe disorganization of behavior...

. He then went to Paris, to the capital of arts and the center of unlimited freedom for him. However, he was forced to return home since he could not receive any more money from his father.

Return to Turkey

In Istanbul, he obtained an attest of normal mental health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 after a three-day stay in Bakırköy Psychiatric Hospital. Fikret Mualla was appointed teacher for drawing to a high school in Ayvalık

Ayvalik

Ayvalık is a seaside town on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. It is a district of the Balıkesir Province.It was alternatively called by the town's formerly indigenous Greek population, although the use of the name Ayvalık was widespread for centuries among both the Turks and the Greeks...

. However, he quit this post and moved to Beyoğlu

Beyoglu

Beyoğlu is a district located on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city by the Golden Horn...

 neighborhood in Istanbul. He tried his hand for a while at writing and drawing. He became friends with soprona Semiha Berksoy

Semiha Berksoy

Semiha Berksoy was one of the first Turkish opera singers, the prima donna of the Turkish opera, a painter, and an internationally acclaimed artist....

, writer Nazım Hikmet

Nazim Hikmet

Nâzım Hikmet Ran , commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet , was a Turkish poet, playwright, novelist and memoirist. He was acclaimed for the "lyrical flow of his statements"...

 and painter Abidin Dino

Abidin Dino

Abidin Dino, was a Turkish artist and a well-known painter.-Early years:Dino was born on March 23, 1913 in Istanbul into a family who loved art. He started drawing and painting at a young age influenced by his family. As a child he lived in Geneve, Switzerland and France for several years with...

. His first exhibition in 1934 with drawings, watercolor paintings and designs did not find much attention. In 1936, he was hospitaled again for about one year. After his release, he decided to leave Turkey, where he felt he was not understood. Before he went 1939 to Paris again, he made around thirty oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

s for the Turkish pavilion at the New York World's Fair

1939 New York World's Fair

The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

 asked by his close friend Abidin Dino.

Life and work in France

His lifetime in Paris passed with alcohol dependency, mental alienation and cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying,...

. He fell in love with the female Turkish painter Hale Asaf without being reciprocated. He was put in hospital again for two months, but during this time he never suspended painting. French model Dina Vierny

Dina Vierny

Dina Vierny was an art dealer, collector and museum director and former artists' model.Born as Dina Aibinder into a Jewish family in Kishinev, Bessarabia ,...

 saved him from being deported. In 1954, Fikret Mualla opened his first exhibition in Paris. He became friends with many renowned artists including Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...

. He later would sell a signed photo of Picasso for one bottle of wine. Following his second exhibition, he was hospitaled again.

Well-known now as a drinker and mad man, he started to be respected as a painter. During this time, a collectioner, Madame Angles, took him under her patronage. This enabled him to earn his living by painting and selling his works. However, ill-starred, Fikret Mualla paralyzed in 1962. He moved to Reillanne

Reillanne

Reillanne is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France.It is due north of Toulon and west of Nice.-History:...

, a village in southeastern France, as cirrhosis

Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...

 supervened. By May 1967, he was put in a clinic after nervous disorders escalated. In the morning of July 20, Fikret Mualla was found dead in his bed. According to his will, his remains were brought to Turkey and were interred at Karacaahmet Cemetery

Karacaahmet Cemetery

The Karacaahmet Cemetery , located in Üsküdar district, is the oldest in Istanbul and, at , the largest burial ground in Turkey.The cemetery was named after a warrior companion of Orhan I, the second Ottoman sultan and is believed to have been founded in the mid-14th century...

 in Istanbul.

Fikret Muallâ Saygı is considered to be one of the representatives of Turkish arts in the 20th century, along with Abidin Dino

Abidin Dino

Abidin Dino, was a Turkish artist and a well-known painter.-Early years:Dino was born on March 23, 1913 in Istanbul into a family who loved art. He started drawing and painting at a young age influenced by his family. As a child he lived in Geneve, Switzerland and France for several years with...

.