It was exhibited in London at the height of Young Turk challenge to Abdulhamid II. You frame it as if it was endorsed by caliphal (religious) authority. Besides, so what? Why does Muslim society only need to present in "pious" forms and not contend with itself like everyone else?
Let me shock you more. 1901 Ottoman painting by Osman Hamdi Bey. It shows a woman on a Quran lectern (so she is literally displacing the Quran) with Islamic books & the Quran at her feet. It was painted and exhibited during Abdulhamid II's reign, the famously conservative Caliph