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Lot Essay
Alberto Pasini was perhaps the most important and extensively traveled of all the Italian Orientalist painters. He enjoyed success both in his own country and in France, where he spent much of his time after 1851. In 1855, when Pasini was having financial difficulties, he joined a French expedition to the Near East where he discovered his personal style and what would become his tour de force: Orientalism. Unlike many of his contemporaries who created their Orientalist paintings in Paris studios based on secondary accounts and arranged studio props, Pasini undertook numerous trips to the Middle East to experience first-hand these exotic lands.
His first excursion in 1855 sent him through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, to the Persian Gulf and Teheran where he finally settled for over two years, taking commissions from the Shah. This introduction to the Near East came through the diplomat Prosper Bourée who asked Pasini to accompany him on the 1855 mission to Persia in place of the ailing Théodore Chassériau. At the conclusion of his duties with Bourée, Pasini spent fifty-two days traveling to Armenia, Turkey and subsequently Egypt. This expedition proved so inspirational for the Italian artist that he found revisiting the regions impossible to resist.
Pasini's Oriental scenes incorporate superb draftsmanship, a great sensitivity to color and are, despite their looser brushwork, remarkably similar in overall effect to those of Edwin Lord Weeks. His 'technical skill, sense of color harmony and excellent treatment of light make one regret that his delightful paintings are so rarely to be found' (L. Thornton, The Orientalists Painter-Travellers, 1828-1908, Paris, 1983, p. 142).
In the present work, based on Pasini’s observations of markets around the Golden Horn in Constantinople, the artist has skillfully manipulated the composition by setting the architecture at an angle to the picture plane. The buildings are set into the hillside, the minaret and dome of the mosque define the middle ground, and the misty rendition of the New Mosque can be seen in the very background. The foreground is populated with a busy market scene; horses dash through the center of the composition, while a group of women, completely ignoring the hubbub behind them, ponder their purchases of ripe melons. Pasini’s works of this period eschewed the dramatic narratives of his contemporaries; instead his Orientalist pictures were based on first-hand knowledge of his subject matter and a search for the picturesque in the everyday life in the Turkish metropolis. His works convey admirably the hustle and bustle of daily Turkish life and vibrancy of local color and are unified by the artist’s extraordinary abilities as a colorist and his ability to capture the nuances of light and shade.
The present work was painted when Pasini was at the height of his powers and his Parisian dealer, Goupil, was unable to keep up with the international demand for his work. Pasini had just returned from an extended trip to Constantinople, where he had received a major commission from the Sultan, and in 1870 he exhibited to great acclaim at the Paris Salon. As a result of these successes he devoted himself almost entirely to paintings of Constantinople, which were executed in his studio from the countless sketches that he made during his travels.
His first excursion in 1855 sent him through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, to the Persian Gulf and Teheran where he finally settled for over two years, taking commissions from the Shah. This introduction to the Near East came through the diplomat Prosper Bourée who asked Pasini to accompany him on the 1855 mission to Persia in place of the ailing Théodore Chassériau. At the conclusion of his duties with Bourée, Pasini spent fifty-two days traveling to Armenia, Turkey and subsequently Egypt. This expedition proved so inspirational for the Italian artist that he found revisiting the regions impossible to resist.
Pasini's Oriental scenes incorporate superb draftsmanship, a great sensitivity to color and are, despite their looser brushwork, remarkably similar in overall effect to those of Edwin Lord Weeks. His 'technical skill, sense of color harmony and excellent treatment of light make one regret that his delightful paintings are so rarely to be found' (L. Thornton, The Orientalists Painter-Travellers, 1828-1908, Paris, 1983, p. 142).
In the present work, based on Pasini’s observations of markets around the Golden Horn in Constantinople, the artist has skillfully manipulated the composition by setting the architecture at an angle to the picture plane. The buildings are set into the hillside, the minaret and dome of the mosque define the middle ground, and the misty rendition of the New Mosque can be seen in the very background. The foreground is populated with a busy market scene; horses dash through the center of the composition, while a group of women, completely ignoring the hubbub behind them, ponder their purchases of ripe melons. Pasini’s works of this period eschewed the dramatic narratives of his contemporaries; instead his Orientalist pictures were based on first-hand knowledge of his subject matter and a search for the picturesque in the everyday life in the Turkish metropolis. His works convey admirably the hustle and bustle of daily Turkish life and vibrancy of local color and are unified by the artist’s extraordinary abilities as a colorist and his ability to capture the nuances of light and shade.
The present work was painted when Pasini was at the height of his powers and his Parisian dealer, Goupil, was unable to keep up with the international demand for his work. Pasini had just returned from an extended trip to Constantinople, where he had received a major commission from the Sultan, and in 1870 he exhibited to great acclaim at the Paris Salon. As a result of these successes he devoted himself almost entirely to paintings of Constantinople, which were executed in his studio from the countless sketches that he made during his travels.