Alberto Pasini

Pasini studied at the Accademia di Parma before joining the studio of Théodore Chassériau in Paris. In 1855, he replaced Chassériau on a diplomatic mission to the court of Nasser al-Din Shah in Tehran. This trip marked the beginning of a long expedition around the Ottoman lands, which notably took Pasini to Persia, Armenia and Egypt. Fascinated by the Orient, he produced a large number of works illustrating the beauty of the Middle East.

When he returned to the country of his birth in the early 1880s, Pasini painted several views of Venice. There are at least two known works of the same date as this, painted beside the Rio dei Santi Apostoli. In the present composition, the framing is closed by a gondola in front of a colonnade, below the Ponte dei Santi Apostoli.