Alberto Pasini

Alberto Pasini painted the Middle East with the precision of a miniaturist. His caravans, market streets, mosques and horsemen are small, carefully drawn and full of sunlight, with glowing tiled walls and crisp shadows.

Born in Busseto near Parma, he studied at the Parma academy and then moved to Paris, where he worked with Théodore Chassériau. In 1855 he joined a French diplomatic mission to Persia, and the journey supplied him with subjects for the rest of his life. He returned to the East several times, visiting Constantinople, Egypt and Syria. He died at Cavoretto near Turin. His self-portrait is in the Uffizi, and the Parma museums hold much of his work.

An Arab Caravan and At the Well show his clear colour and his feeling for the quiet moments of desert travel.