{{Short description|Austrian artist (1832–1903)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}} {{Use British English|date=January 2014}} {{Infobox artist | name = Ludwig Johann Passini | image = File:Ludwig Passini Litho.jpg | image_size = | caption = Ludwig Passini, Lithography by Josef Kriehuber | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1832|07|09|df=yes}} | birth_place = Vienna | death_date = {{Death date and age|1903|11|06|1832|07|09|df=yes}} | death_place = Venice | field = watercolour and oil painting, printmaking | training = Vienna Academy of Art }} thumb|Figures on a Venetian canal [[File:Ludwig Passini - Künstler im Cafe Greco in Rom.jpg|thumb|Ludwig Passini – ''Caffè Greco in Rome'']] thumb|Ludwig Passini – ''An earnest conversation'' thumb|Ludwig Passini – ''Roman street scene'' [[File:Ludwig Passini - Italienische Marktszene mit römischen Ruinen.jpg|thumb|Ludwig Passini – ''Roman Fish Market at Sant'Angelo in Pescheria'']] '''Ludwig Johann Passini''' (1832–1903), sometimes '''Ludovico Passini''', was an Austrian narrative and genre painter and printmaker.
==Personal life== Ludwig Passini was born on 9 July 1832 in Vienna, the son of Louise Passini and the engraver Johann Nepomuk Passini.<ref name=UniGlasgow>[http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/biog/?bid=Passi_L&initial=P "Ludwig Johann Passini, 1832–1903"], ''The Correspondence of James McNeil Whistler'', University of Glasgow, Retrieved 29 January 2014</ref> The Passini family moved to Trieste in 1850. On 9 November 1864 Passini married Anna Warschauer (1841–1866), who was the daughter of Robert and Mary Warschauer, the great-granddaughter of banker Joseph Mendelssohn and the great-great-granddaughter of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. The couple, who lived alternately in Berlin and Rome, had one daughter. Anna died one and a half years after the wedding.
Ludwig Passini died on 6 November 1903 in Venice.
==Career== Passini was taught art first by his father, and later studied at the Vienna Academy of Art under the painters Joseph von Führich and Leopold Kupelwieser.<ref name=UniGlasgow/><ref name=WawrikZeilinger>Wawrik, Franz; Zeilinger, Elisabeth (1989); ''Österreich auf alten Karten und Ansichten'', Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, p.362. {{ISBN|3-201-01476-1}}</ref> In the 1850s, Passini settled in Venice, where he worked in the studio of Carl Werner. He had previously studied under Werner at Leipzig,<ref name=UniGlasgow/> and he accompanied Werner on his painting tour of Italy.<ref name=WawrikZeilinger/><ref>Kashey, Robert; Reymert, Martin L. H. (1981); ''German drawings and watercolors, 1780–1880'' (a survey of works on paper by German-speaking artists), Shepherd Gallery, Associates, New York City, p.100</ref> The fellow artist Anton Romako was also part of Werner's studio. Between 1853 and 1870 Passini lived in Rome, where his work became focused on the human figure set against architectural and interior elements, and within narrative themes. From 1873, and for the rest of his life, he remained in Venice – though with occasional visits to Berlin – where his watercolours often featured everyday Venetian life, ordinary people, and portraiture.<ref name=Adelson>Adelson, Warren (2006); ’’Sargent's Venice’’, Yale University Press, pp.185, 196. {{ISBN|0-300-11717-5}}. Quoting Vardui Kalpukcian: "Ludwig Passini (1832, Vienna – 1903, Venezia): un pittore austriaco, ritrattista della vista Venezia" in ''Roemische Historische Mitteilungen'', ed. Richard Borsel and Herman Fillitz, vol 46, Roman Historical Releases 46th Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (2004), p.357.</ref>
While in Venice, Passini became part of the artist colony of Henry Woods, August von Pettenkofen, Carl van Haanen, Eugene de Blaas, Wolkoff, Ruben, and Thoren.<ref>Fildes, Luke Val: ''Luke Fildes R.A.: A Victorian Painter''; Michael Joseph, London (1968), p.50</ref> Passini occupied a studio in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi for thirty years with fellow artists Carlo Reichardt and Luigi Mion. While here, in 1892, he painted his portraits of Katherine Bronson and Edith, her daughter, and the English Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and art historian Sir Henry Layard.<ref name=Adelson/> A further two 1892 portraits were of the American art collectors Jack Gardner (also a businessman), and his wife Isabella (founder of Fenway Court art museum), who lived at the Palazzo Barbaro. Isabella had commissioned the paintings after meeting Passini at a dinner party held by Katherine Bronson. The portrait of Isabella was not successful and did not survive.<ref>Chong, Alan (2009); "Henry James, Mrs Gardner and Art" in ''Letters to Isabella Stewart Gardner'', ed. Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, Pushkin Press (2012), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. {{ISBN|978-1-908968-64-7}}</ref><ref>Carter, Morris; ''Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway court'', Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1963), pp.130,178. Ayer Co, Pub.; reprint edition (1972). {{ISBN|0-8369-6901-4}}</ref>
A friend of Passini was the exiled Richard Wagner, who died at Vendramin Calergi in 1883. Passini, along with fellow painter Wolkoff, suggested a death mask for Wagner. The idea was at first rejected by Wagner's wife Cosima, but was carried out by Passini and the sculptor Augusto Benvenuti under the agreement, and eye, of Cosima's daughter, Daniela.<ref>Barker, John W. (2008); ''Wagner and Venice'', University of Rochester Press, p.57. {{ISBN|1-58046-288-X}}</ref>
The first Venice Biennale was held in 1895 as an exhibition of Italian art. In formulating the Biennale in 1893, the mayor of Venice, Riccardo Selvatico, was advised by a committee of internationally exhibiting artists from many European countries, one being Ludwig Passini.<ref>''Arte E Artisti Nella Modernità'', Antonello Negri (editor), Jaca Book SpA Milan (2000), pp.168,170. {{ISBN|978-88-16-40540-0}}</ref>
Passini received medals in Paris (1870), Vienna (1873), Munich (1879), and Berlin (1896). His works were included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in London, and he became an honorary member of the latter in 1883. Passini was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 1893.<ref name=UniGlasgow/>
In 1878 Passini was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour,<ref name=UniGlasgow/> and the following year an honorary professor of the Vienna Academy of Art. He was also a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Academy of Arts, Venice.<ref>Spielmann, Marion Harry (1904) ''The Magazine of Art'', vol. 2, Petter and Gallpin; reprint Nabu Press (2010), p.174</ref>
==Reception== Passini exhibited in the Italian Fine Arts Section of the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle. The art critic Philip Gilbert Hamerton described Italian painting of the time as playful to the point of being childish, although original with direct observation of nature. Passini's work for the Exposition was considered by critics to have saved the quality of Italian art shown.<ref name=Aldine1879>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20637635 "Italy at the Paris Exposition"], ''The Aldine – The Art Journal of America'', volume 9, no. 9, (1879), p.297</ref>
The Viennese author and critic Ludwig Hevesi believed Passini to be "the major watercolour painter of Venice... who grew rapidly to be the most important genre painter."<ref>Hevesi, Ludwig (1903); ''Austrian Art of the 19th Century'', part 2: 1848–1900, Seemann, Leipzig, p.236</ref>
Art historian Wilhelm Lübke described Passini's work: "Admirable character-pictures of Southern life may be found in the masterly watercolours of Ludwig Passini, with their beautifully-finished colouring."<ref>Lübke, Wilhelm (1878); ''Outlines of the History of Art. Classic'', Dodd Mead, p.264; reprint Lightning Source UK Ltd (2012). {{ISBN|1-235-99663-8}}</ref>
The 19th-century arts magazine ''The Aldine'' in 1878 described Passini's pictures as "showing a skill in studying the human face, and an appreciation of its expressions, which indicate natural gift even more than close study... [and] the careful drawing and skillful posing of... figures."<ref name=Aldine1878>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20637635 "Two Characteristic Pictures"], ''The Aldine – The Art Journal of America'', volume 9, no. 3, (1878), p.110</ref>
==Selected works== His watercolor, ''I Canonici a vespro'', exhibited at the 1867 Exposition of Paris, was awarded the grand gold medal. He painted atmospheric scenes of every day, that is genre scenes, of life in Venice. One of his contemporaries was Carlo Van Haanen. Other works include:''Monaci in Coro'', ''la Maddalena'', ''l'Abatino'', ''Un ponte'', ''Le donne al pozzo'', ''La lettura del Tasso a Chioggia'', and ''La vendita delle zucche a Venezia''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tnxHAAAAYAAJ&q=Passini Emporium Volume 18], (1903): Miscellanea (obituary) by Pompeo Molmenti. Instituto d'arti Grafiche Bergamo, Editore.page 473-474.</ref> Works include: *''Monks Buying Fish at the Portal of the Madonna della Misericordia'' (1855) *''Salone of the Palazzo Barbaro'' (1855) *''Cafè Greco in Rome'' (1856), Kunsthalle Hamburg<ref>Pelou, Pierre; ''Impromptus italiens'', L'Harmattan (2013), p.59. {{ISBN|978-2-336-29036-2}}</ref> *''Roman Fish Market at Sant'Angelo in Pescheria'' (1863) *''The confessional'' (1863) *''The interior of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore'' (1867) *''The Latin Class'' (1869) *''A Shared Confidence'' (1870) *''Praying in a Venetian church'' (1873) *''Bridge at the Riva degli Schiavoni – A Procession in Venice'' (1873–74) *''People on a Venetian canal'' (1893) *''A Clerical Intervention'' (1897)
==References== {{reflist}} ==Further reading== *Ludwig Passini in ''General Encyclopedia of Artists of the antiquity to the present'', volume XXVI, p.286, Seemann, Leipzig (1932) *Kalpakcian, Vardui; ''Ludwig Passini (1832, Vienna – 1903, Venezia): un pittore austriaco, ritrattista della vista Venezia'', ed. Richard Boesel, Fillitz Hermann; Roman Historical Releases 46th Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna (2004). {{ISBN|3-7001-3306-5}} *Bénézit, E.; ''Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs'', 8 vols, Paris (1956–61); reprint Librairie Grund; 4th illustrated edition (1999) {{ISBN|2-7000-3010-9}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Ludwig Passini}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Passini, Ludwig Johann}} Category:1832 births Category:1903 deaths Category:Painters from the Austrian Empire Category:Italian painters Category:Italian genre painters
Category:Painters from Vienna Category:Painters from Venice Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour Category:Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni
Category:19th-century Italian painters Category:Italian male painters Category:20th-century Italian painters Category:19th-century Italian male artists Category:20th-century Italian male artists