Fausto Zonaro

(Masi 1854–1929 San Remo)
Odalisque on the Bosphorus Playing the Lute, signed F. Zonaro, oil on canvas, 85 x 64 cm, framed
Provenance:
Private Collection, Italy.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Erol Makzume, The Sultan’s Italian Court Painter Fausto Zonaro, Florence 2021, ill. p. 137.

We are grateful to Erol Makzume for kindly confirming the authenticity on the basis of the original.

Fausto Zonaro moved to Istanbul in 1891 and was appointed the official painter to the court of Sultan Abdül Hamid II in 1896. He produced of number of works depicting the everyday life of the Ottoman capital, and the daily activities and traditions of the Turkish people.
Executed en plein-air, the present painting depicts a young, well-dressed Turkish woman playing the lute on a small boat on the Bosphorus in Istanbul. The city is visible in the background.
She is playing the baĝlama or saz, which is a stringed instrument belonging to the family of long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music. She plays using the fingerpicking technique known as şelpe.
It is likely that the sitter is an odalisque. The term derives from the Turkish word for chambermaid or attendant and it is used to identify an Ottoman Harem girl.
Zonaro left Istanbul in 1910 when the new government of the “Young Turks” dismissed him from the post of painter to the Sultan. He eventually settled in San Remo until his death in 1929. He is considered the most important painter to introduce a Western style of painting to Turkey.