One of the earliest views of Jedda by a professional painter

PASINI, Alberto.

Veduta del Campo de Pellegrini alla Porta de Djedda detta della Mecca (Porto del Mar Rosso).
Paris, 1859. Tinted lithograph on india paper, laid on card as issued, printed area 235 x 340mm.

Small repaired tear in wide margins.

A view of Hajj pilgrims camped at the gates of Jedda, en route to Mecca, drawn and lithographed by Alberto Pasini, one of the first professional artists to visit the area.
In 1855 Pasini (1828-99) joined the French diplomatic mission under Prosper Bourré to the court of Nasser al-Din Shah in Tehran, an attempt to counter Russian influence in Persia during the Crimean War. Pasini was invited to make a visual record to accompany the written account by Joseph-Arthur, Comte de Gobineau (1816-1882).
The mission left Marsailles for Alexandria, crossing Suez to join the East Indiaman Victoria bound for Bushire. They put in at Jeddah (where they met Kemal Pasha, Guardian of the Holy Shrines at Mecca and Medina), then Aden, and Muscat (where they had an audience with the Sultan, Syed Said), before crossing the Gulf. From Bushire they travelled north to Shiraz, Isfahan, and Tehran. Pasini stayed at the Shah's court, before returning to Paris in 1856. In 1859 Pasini published his pictorial record of the mission: an album of 12 prints, lithographed by himself from his drawings, 'Viaggio nell' Egitto, nella Persia et nell' Armenia, dodici vedute disegnate dal vero litografate da Alberto Pasini'.


Stock ID : 19584