Entrance to the Bazaar, Cairo

Pasini, a prolific painter who knew the greatest French Orientalist artists and whose works were highly popular with the collectors of his time, is now considered the most masterful of the Italian practitioners of the genre. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma. Then, after stays in Turin and Geneva, he went to Paris, where he entered the studio of Chassériau in 1854. The following year, he accompanied a secret mission to the Shah of Persia, Naser el-Din, a trip that was decisive for his career. Pasini returned to France inspired by the landscapes of the East and the people he came into contact with and observed there. His sojourn left an indelible imprint on his works, which brilliantly rendered the atmosphere, light, and monuments of the lands he had roamed.