Alberto Pasini 1826-1899

Original canvas. Two tiny spots of paintloss to the left of the stairs at the base of the domed building in the centre. A few specks of surface dirt in the lower foreground below the central building and through the tail of the horse on the right. Some slight craquelure in the sky in the upper left part of the painting. A little bit of paintloss in the upper left corner due to frame abrasion. No retouches visible under U.V.-light. This work would benefit from cleaning but is otherwise in good condition.
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Alberto Pasini studied with several influential painters in Paris, including Isabey and Chasseriau. This training paid off with his debut at the Salon of 1853; it was his first trip to the East, sent by Chasseriau to the court of Persia in the company of a French diplomat, that forever altered the artist's preferred subject matter. The first trip took him to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Persian Gulf and Tehran, where he stayed over a year. Pasini was captivated by local colour and custom, as one sees in this beautiful depiction of The Watermelon seller.

Pasini's explorations continued; rather than depicting famous buildings or views, he sought out the most remote corners of Turkey and Persia. Seeking further inspiration, he travelled to Constantinople in 1868-69 and to Asia Minor and Syria in 1873. No phantasy intrudes: his interests do not lie with the pleasing shock of the harem scene or in depicting animals unknown to a Western audience. Instead, Pasini focuses on the intense light, imbued with the heat of the day, and the local customs. Fierce horsemen guarding sultans and palaces, people busily mulling around a bazaar or travelling across the lonely desert afford us a window into an exotic place's quotidian activities. His images lack the viewpoint of the outsider but instead seemingly reveal to us a beautifully depicted, but matter-of-fact story, told by an accepted narrator in a foreign land.

As Lynn Thornton notes in her excellent The Orientalist Painters, (Paris 1984, p. 124): "Pasini was struck by the delicacy of light in the east. His treatment of the play between shadow and sun and his almost photographic representation of architecture and figures are a world apart from the imaginary exoticism of earlier Orientalist paintings".   

The artist's extensive sketches and notes served him well when he finally had returned home to Italy from his many travels and the years in his Paris studio. Pasini continued painting his favourite Eastern themes from memory for the rest of his life.