Fausto Zonaro was an Italian painter who had arrived in Ottoman İstanbul in 1891 where he stayed for the remaining 19 years and painted 1300 pictures of the city. He painted almost every detail of the city from its street animals to its fishermen, from the court life to its women, from the dervishes to the non-muslim elite. He also painted a wide range of neighbourhoods of the city from Beşiktaş to Üsküdar on both sides of İstanbul.
He finally became a painter of the Ottoman court which elevated his status. He was granted with a salary and a house in Akaretler during which he enjoyed a comfortable life. He also instructed the painters in the Yıldız Porcelain Factory which is still producing porcelains for İstanbulites.
There is a book on this Ottoman court painter who left so much for us. The book has a rich collection of the documents, photos and paintings of the great master who has had to leave İstanbul in 1910 after the Young Turk Revolution which shifted the power balance in the Empire.
Let’s glance at İstanbul from the lens of this great Italian painter who created a visual archive of our past. I have especially made a selection of Zonaro’s İstanbul women most of whom come from the upper classes. Pay attention to their colourful dresses and intricate details.
Note that Zonaro used the photographs of her wife Elisa Zonaro to paint most of these paintings as it was not possible for a Muslim woman to pose to a male painter at the time. For Elisa Zonaro, check my article https://eternalcityistanbul.com/elisa-zonaros-istanbul/.
The below painting shows a part of the wedding ceremony of the British Consulate’s daughter when she was being carried to the venue of the wedding ceremony. The palanquin was typical at the time for people from the upper classes.
You can see a 19th palanquin like the one above on the first floor of Pera Palace Hotel.
19th century Palanquin at the Pera Palace Hotel
