| |
Giulio Rosati
‘Bedouins with a Camel and Horse in the Desert’
Watercolour over pencil heightened with gouache, signed Giulio Rosati
53 x 38.5 cm.
One of a number of Italian Orientalist painters at the turn of the century, Giulio Rosati was born in Rome 1858 and died in the same city on 16th February 1917. During his maturity he specialised in vibrant, highly detailed and technically masterful scenes of the Orient. The majority of these works, also the most sought after, were executed in watercolour although Rosati also painted in oils. Typical among these views were subjects ranging from carpet merchants, slave markets and exotic dancers as well as Bedouins in the desert, metal workers, arms dealers and mounted Arab warriors.
Rosati’s formal artistic training began in Rome at the Accademia where he studied under the portrait and historical Salon painters Francesco Podesti (1800-95) and Dario Querci (b. 1831). However he preferred the instruction gained under Luis Alvarez Catala (1836-1901), an active member of the modern art movement and director of the Prado Museum, Madrid. Alvarez Catala’s Madrid studio was also frequented by Rosati’s friend Aristide Sartorio (1860-1932), a well-known architect, painter, engraver, sculptor and writer. During his early career Rosati tended to paint genre and religious scenes. A number of these works combined both idioms and often with his figures in sumptuous eighteenth century costume, of which typical examples included an oil painting of ‘A Baptism’ of 1886 or ‘A Confirmation Mass’ of 1890. Both showed the interior of a large church or cathedral with multi-figure groups, all in elaborate historical dress. Another slightly earlier oil of 1883 of connoisseurs admiring an Old Master was very much in the style of the Florentine Salon painters, such as Federico Andreotti (1847-1930) or Vittorio Reggianini (b. 1854). Rosati also painted scenes of card or backgammon players in an elegant interior but later instead of courtiers and cardinals the players were in Arab costume in an Eastern courtyard.
As a master draughtsman and colourist, he described in infinite detail the colour, heat and atmosphere of the camel markets, bustling bazaars with rug sellers, voluptuous nude females in the harems and as here views in the desert with Bedouins, camels and horses. Although Rosati enjoyed popularity at home many of his works were purchased by private individuals from America and England and in more recent years have been acquired by Middle Eastern collectors; for this reason few can now be found in Italy. Rosati’s son Alberto was also a painter who worked in a similar manner to his father.
Despite his quality and prolific output there is no evidence to suggest that Rosati ever travelled beyond Europe. This however was not unusual since he, like many other nineteenth century Orientalists, such as Ingres, did not feel that travel to the East was necessary. Others such as Delacroix or David Roberts only made one trip, preferring to return home to produce their finished works. Instead of sketches, Rosati, like many other fellow Orientalist painters relied upon an array of Eastern artefacts including carpets, tiles, brass work and Oriental costumes, which were sent back to Europe by the crate loads and used by artists an aide-memoirs. Like others Rosati also relied upon photography as an inspiration for his settings.
|
|
/images/left.gif){kind=small}
