01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 33

Alberto Pasini, 1826 - 1899, ITALIAN

MARKET IN CONSTANTINOPLE

Oil on canvas

38.5 by 46cm., 15¼ by 18¼in.

Private collection

It is common to think that the western terminus of the Silk Road was Rome in Italy. However, whilst Rome was indeed an important destination for Chinese silk during the first two or three centuries of the Silk Road (perhaps until 200 AD), from the 4th century onwards, the “Rome” to which all roads led in the Mediterranean world was “Eastern Rome” or Constantinople. Even in its long centuries of decline down to its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the wealth of Constantinople was legendary, and its location ensured it a very important role in the trade with the East. Renamed Istanbul under the Turks, the city again became the capital of a great empire and played a central role in east-west cultural and economic exchange. More on the MARKET IN CONSTANTINOPLE

Alberto Pasini (Busseto, 3 September 1826 – Cavoretto, 15 December 1899) was an Italian painter. He was enrolled at the age of 17 years, in the Academy of Fine Art of Parma, studying landscape painting and drawing. In Parma, he was helped early on by Antonio Pasini, who painted for the local nobility and collaborated with the publishing house established by Giovanni Battista Bodoni. By 1852, he exhibited a series of thirty designs, made into lithographs, depicting various castles around Piacenza, Lunigiana and Parma. He was noticed by the artist Paolo Toschi, who encouraged Pasini to travel to Paris, where Pasini first joined the workshop of Charles and Eugène Ciceri, of the so-called School of Barbizon.

In 1853 his lithograph of The Evening gained him admittance to the Paris Salon, and to the workshop of the famous Théodore Chassériau. The eruption of the Crimean War offered a new opportunity, when in February 1855, this latter painter recommended Pasini to replace him on the entourage of the French plenipotentiary minister Nicolas Prosper Bourée to Persia. Pasini accompanied him, returning through the north of Persia and Armenia before reaching the port of Trebizond. In subsequent trips, he visited Egypt, the Red Sea, Arabia, Istanbul, and Persia. Pasini parlayed his exposures during this trip into numerous highly detailed paintings of orientalist subjects. He left again for Istanbul in October 1867, summoned by the French Ambassador Bourée. He returned to Turkey in 1876 to execute the four paintings commissioned by Sultan Abdul Aziz. He was about to return to Istanbul the next year, when his patron, the Sultan, died.

In 1865, he spent some time in Cannes, painted landscapes of the Riviera. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he returned to Italy, settling in Cavoretto, on the hills around Turin. He continued to travel, closer to his home, with trips to Venice and two sojourns in Spain in 1879 and 1883. More Alberto Pasini 

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 24

Giulio Rosati, 1858 - 1917, ITALIAN

THE CARPET MERCHANT

Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper

36 by 25.5cm., 14¼  by 10in.

Private collection

Giulio Rosati, 1858 - Rome - 1917,  specialised in eighteenth century costume pieces, comical scenes of from the life of the clergy and Orientalist subjects. His preferred medium was watercolour, though he also worked in oils.

Rosati studied at the Academy of Rome. He was the pupil of several eminent artists, in particular the poet and architect Francesco Podesti (1800-1895) and Dario Querci (born 1831), a portrait and history painter from Messina. He also studied with Luis Alvarez y Catala (1836-1901), director of the Prado Museum, Madrid.

Rosati was one of a large group of Italian Orientalist painters working in Rome at the end of the nineteenth century. These artists emulated Mariano Fortuny y Marsal in his skilful rendering of detail and bright colouring. This manner was particularly popular with American and British collectors, many of whom purchased these images as a memento of their travels in the Near East, a voyage very much in vogue at the end of the last century. 

Guilio Rosati had a son Alberto who also became an artist. His manner is very much indebted to his father, but he was not so prolific. More Giulio Rosati

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 26

Gustavo Simoni, 1846 - 1946, ITALIAN

THE CARPET SELLER, c. 1893

Watercolour and pencil on paper

57 by 86.5cm., 22¾ by 34in.

Private collection

Arab Market Scene is the type of on-site composition that Simoni developed into paintings in his studio from travel sketches in North Africa and the Middle East. Although best known for his Orientalist works depicting mosques and other Islamic subject matter — he was particularly fascinated with the village festivals he witnessed in North Africa — Simoni also created images of everyday life, like this market scene, which depicts the daily workings of a village community conversing, walking, and selling beautifully crafted, decorative wares. More on the Arab Market 

Gustavo Simoni ( Rome , 5 November 1845 - Palestrina , 1926 ) was an Italian painter and teacher. He was born in Rome. He had a younger brother, Scipione, who directed him to painting.

He chose to follow the innovative road marked by Mariano Fortuny. Starting in 1877 Gustavo Simoni traveled extensively, going to France, Spain and Africa, where he stayed several times in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. He settled for many years in the ancient city of Tlemcen, in Algeria, in an isolated house where he welcomed friends who came from Rome. He had relationships with authoritative personalities of the place. His fame was gained among collectors and connoisseurs. He won the Gold Medal at the Paris Salon of 1889 and was again awarded in 1895, at the Exposition of Fine Arts in Rome.


He became a member of the Accademia di San Luca . In the late nineteenth century he opened a studio in Paris, where he attended the main exponents of symbolism, satisfying the requests for the orientalist genre in watercolor and, in large sizes, in oil. Back in Rome, he founded his own school of Orientalist painting. He lived in a farmhouse in Via di Villa Patrizi. More on Gustavo Simoni

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.