Fausto Zonaro

Aboard the SS Bulgaria, en route to Constantinople

VAT reduced rate

Estimate

18,000 - 22,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property of a Gentleman

Fausto Zonaro

Italian

1854–1929

Aboard the SS Bulgaria, en route to Constantinople

signed F.Zonaro lower right

oil on panel

Unframed: 21 by 36.5 cm., 8¼ by 14⅜ in.

Framed: 45.8 by 60.7 cm., 18 by 23⅞ in.

With Galleria Ranzini, Milan, by October 1948

Milan, Galleria Ranzini, October 1948, no. 5

Erol Makzume, The Sultan's Italian Court Painter, Florence, 2021, pp. 86 and 176, reproduced in colour pp. 86 and 176

Zonaro and his wife Elisa, a former student he had taught in Venice, first travelled to Constantinople together in 1891 to fulfil their artistic aspirations, inspired by the writings of Edmondo de Amicis and Théophile Gautier. It was a complete leap of faith by Zonaro: selling up what few items of furniture and possessions he owned in Venice, little did he know what fortune held in store, or that he would one day becoming court painter to Sultan Abdülhamid II. Elisa and Fausto sailed to Constantinople from Athens aboard the SS Bulgaria, a crossing which inspired the present work and also a related oil, Odalisque Between the East and the West.