Alberto Pasini

(Italian, 1826-1899)

Davanti alla moschea

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Italy.

Exhibited
Galleria Manzoni, 1975.

Literature
Galleria Manzoni, Catalogo Galleria Manzoni, Asta, 1975, no. 43, tav. XI.
Vittoria Botteri Cardoso, Pasini, Genova, 1991, no. 821, p. 362 (illustrated p. 363).

Alberto Pasini trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Parma, initially working as a lithographer and landscape painter. He settled in Paris in 1851, enrolling in the studio of Charles and Eugène Ciceri, and first exhibited at the Salon two years later.

In late 1854 Pasini moved to the studio of Théodore Chassériau and it was here that he first encountered Orientalism. Due to ill health, Chassériau was unable to take up his post as the official artist to the French delegation to Persia in February 1855, and Pasini took his place, accompanying the French minister Nicolas Prosper Bourée in his quest to persuade Shah Nasi ad-din to support France and Britain against Russia in the Crimean war.

As a result of the journey to Tehran, through Egypt and then returning through Armenia and Turkey, Pasini produced numerous sketches and lithographs. In 1867 he left for Istanbul, summoned by Prosper Bourée, who had by this time been appointed as French ambassador and was to be a lifelong friend of the artist. He was to return in 1876, this time to work on a series of paintings commissioned by Sultan Abdul Aziz for the palace at Dolmabahçe.

In 1870 Pasini had settled in Cavoretto, but continued to travel not only to the Near East, but also to other parts of Italy, particularly Venice and Spain. He died in December 1899.

As the art critic Ugo Ojetti commented in 1898: 'those honest eyes saw and that honest hand portrayed it all: the varied lights in varied atmospheres, all skilfully and clearly depicted....'<sup>1

1</sup> Vittoria Botteri Cardoso, Pasini, Genova, 1991, p. 378.