Darat al Funun currently on

Her journey to history and locations extends from the announcement of the Second Constitutional Monarchy to the Independence War or, from the World War I to World War II or to the Gulf War. The chain of relationships with historical personalities that had started with Atatürk, King Gazi, Hitler, Queen Elizabeth, was extended to the outstanding personalities of the world of art in Turkey, Europe. Iraq and Amman. This alone suffices to make it problematic to write down her artistic history.

If and ever Zeid's works are considered as valuable documents that reflect this historical heritage with regard to subject matter, content and style, the outcome will be fascinating.

III.2. Stylistic elements The most outstanding aspect of Fahr el nissa paintings is the colors, ornaments and her fondness for surface (Tör 1945, Güvemli 1945:7).

III.2.1. Colors/Paints Her passion for colors has manifested itself in her early ages. Her sister Aliye said that her palette used to be covered with beautiful colors (Erbil 1975:3). Contrary to her contemporaries, Zeid was defined as a magician of colors. She was a magnificent color/stained glass designer. In fact, from the beginning, color was the basic concern in her art, beyond being an instrument for covering or painting a surface. Vedat Nedim Tör says, " She separates her surface into colorful sections. She paints as if she weaves a carpet or decorates mosaics; she is a genuine artist of this land. Color, surface and volume traditions of the East have found their European maturity in her art (Tör 1944). As a matter of fact, the bright, warm colors of Mediterranean and Mesopotamia can be captured in her pictures.

Zeid's art reflects the unforgettable memories, impressions and influences from ancient sites such as Greece, Crete, Miken, Phoestos, Delphi, as well as from Dresden and Wien, the leading Western cities of art Bagdad, that splendid city of the East with its Golden Tigris, Babylon and Kerbela, is the source of her prosperity of colors (Anonymous 1959). In Lassaigne's words, the colorful mosaics separated in details by the lattice of Arabian window, through which she had looked at outside world for the first time, also created a colorful world in her paintings. The colors used in her pictures are clear, limpid and fresh. Even if her colors are darkened, a glimmer of light that emerges from inside covers the painting (Cited from Lassaigne 1953, anonymously). Charles Estienne speaks of her use of colors in lyrical words:

"Her paintings portray the parade of strange nations that migrate from one place to another; they expose- in strange lights turning to crimson - reds, blues of huge glass cases, heavy as lead coils, enveloped in violent blacks. This light resembles the fabulous lights of Gothic stained glasses. Let this thick and impenetrable wall of Eastern stained glass, which grasps one in an unknown and transparent way, be a boundless and free line conveying the latest messages of Islamic arts to the French art...." (Cited from Estienne,1951, anonymously 1988a)

In Zeid's paintings, a wide range of colors was used in conformity with their periods and the expression of the picture itself. For instance, in painting the eyes, lips and hair in a portrait of 1970s, she used color freely, in a Fauvistic style, with touches using the brush technique of the impressionism. The face was painted as a smooth surface with a single color. Indeed, her use of colors is associated with Matisse. But also, it can be easily observed that she was influenced by the Islamic miniature art. Or, in her abstract compositions, in which line/pattern independence are dominant, the lines may wander freely on the color while colors come side by side in spots. Zeid neglected the color/object relationship and abandoned using colors to define the object.