Count Amadeo PREZIOSI (Malta 1816- Istanbul 1882) - Lot 300

Count Amadeo PREZIOSI (Malta 1816- Istanbul 1882) Sweet Waters, Turkey, 1858 Watercolor and gum arabic, pen and brown and red inks 41 x 29.8 cm Signed and located in the margin in red ink: "Les Eaux Douces (Turquie) Preziosi". Watercolor palette in the margin. (Accidents and restorations, condition report on request) Provenance: - Anonymous sale, Neuilly, Me Aguttes, December 16, 2003, no. 76. Bibliography: - Amadeo Preziosi, Stamboul. Souvenirs d'Orient. [Paris], 1858, pl. 11. Born into a Maltese-French family, Preziosi studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in the 1840s. He then moved to Istanbul and married a Greek-Hellenic woman. He soon became the artistic reference for the colony and for English travelers. The Prince of Wales visited him and bought some of his watercolors. In 1858, he published a collection of 29 lithographs on Turkish subjects with Lemercier in Paris. Our watercolor is related to plate 11 of this volume, with some variations in the foliage. Les Eaux Douces d 'Europe consisted of a plain crossed by two rivers flowing into the Golden Horn. It was a favored site of the Turkish sultans in the 18th century and of Stamboulian high society in the 19th century.