With the establishment of the republic in 1923, Turkey implemented reforms in the axis aimed at modernizing social structure radically changes and transformations. In the context of targeted changes and transformations, the creation of an educated and modern woman model has become the primary cultural issue of the new era. The cultural importance of the educated modern woman profile, which the Republican ideology tried to create, was followed with interest by the painters of the period and became the subject of many of their compositions. These pictures are very important in terms of documenting the process. For this reason, in terms of documenting the change and transformation of women in the context of education and image in the early Republican period and having a function that serves the said change and transformation as of the period, the image of the woman seen in the series of Akdik’s works known by names such as "woman reading book" or "woman reading" etc. has been considered important as it is thought to be one of the most stable examples of the educated, modern Turkish woman image seen in Turkish painting and it is aimed to contribute to the relevant literature by examining the examples of paintings produced by the artist in the period between 1930 and 1960. It was seen that Akdik composed the female figures he interpreted in his works examined within the scope of his research with his new image in modern clothes and modern home environment in accordance with the ideals of the Republic, and included the book image, which is considered the most important symbol of the educated modern woman, as the main element in his compositions. In this context, it was seen that the artist documents the change and transformation that women went through in the context of education and image in the early Republic period with these works. In addition, it was understood that Akdik played a role in encouraging change by visualizing the new type of woman that the Republican administration wanted to see in her compositions in terms of being a role model for Anatolian women in a period when the literacy rate was very low. Qualitative research methods and techniques were used in the study which general scanning model was used. In the research, data were collected from virtual and printed sources by scanning the literature.

Keywords: Şeref Akdik, Turkish painting, woman, education, Early Republican period