Fausto Zonaro

(Italian, 1854-1929)

Allegoria della primavera

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Lombardy.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Fausto Zonaro was born in Veneto, Italy, to a family of modest means. His father, a master mason, was very supportive of his interest in drawing, encouraging him to pursue a career as an artist.

Zonaro moved to Istanbul with his wife Elisa, and is most well-known for his realist depictions of Turkish life. His paintings from this period capture the day-to-day activities, bustling marketplaces, traditions and the light and activity of Constantinople and the Bosporus. He was appointed chief artist to the Ottoman court by Sultan Abdülhamid II in early 1896 and during this tenure made major contributions to western-style art in this region. Even when he would return to Italy, his love affair with Turkey continued and he often re-visited scenes painting from memory and the photographs Elisa had taken.

The present lot, painted in 1923, was executed when Zonaro had settled in San Remo, Italy. San Remo was a cosmopolitan city that provided a source of attractive models and the surrounding countryside was an inspiration for Zonaro to return to landscape painting. These later works possess a lyricism and spontaneity of brushwork. Zonaro stated 'I can never portray the unattainable beauties that nature provides us with in their precise lighting and colours. What I strive to do is to study these things and to discover and sense their deepest realities in order that I may capture the exact moment that affects my soul. I want the scenes that I paint to be able to recite all the poetry that is inherent in the subject of the painting'.<sup>2

1</sup> Osman Öndeş and Erol Makzume, Ottoman Court Painter, Fausto Zonaro, Istanbul, 2003, p. 19.
² Ibid., p. 111.