A street scene in Egypt

Signed and dedicated lower right: All’Amico / F. Buzzi / Pompeo Mariani

Oil on panel

25.6 x 31 cm. (10 x 12 ¼ in.)

Provenance:

Federico Buzzi (1820 - 1890), Milan;

Art market, Milan, 1960s;

Where acquired by Leslie Meyer (1927- 2020);

Thence by descent, Milan, until 2022.

Pomepo Marinari’s satisfyingly liquid oil sketch from 1881 of an Egyptian market stall is very much a painter’s painting, gifted first to the Milanese artist Federico Buzzi and later owned by the Italian-American painter Leslie Meyer. Not connected to any larger composition, the work is an autonomous study, painted for no other reason than the pleasure in swiftly capturing a transitory moment of everyday Egyptian life.

The sketch is a symphony in ochre, giving a sense of the tonal limitations of life on the edge of the Sahara, though is enlivened by a few small flashes of vibrant reds and blues. All is painted with a beautiful impasto. This gives a real sense of texture and surface, as well as creating a shimmering, haze-like effect which emphasises the sweltering heat of the day. A sliver of bright blue at the upper edge indicates the open skies of the desert and the relentless power of the sun.

Mariani was born in Monza in 1857 to an artistic family: his maternal grandfather and uncle, Giosuè and Mosè Bianchi, were both successful painters. Initially working as a banker in Milan, Mariani abandoned this career in 1878 after he was sacked for drawing an unflattering caricature of his boss. Keeping his family in the dark, he secretly attended painting lessons with Eleutario Pagliani, who soon convinced Mosè and the rest of the family of Mariani’s artistic skill. 

Allowed to follow his passion, Mariani travelled to Egypt in 1881, where he executed a small group of oil sketches depicting scenes of local life, of which the present work is a very fine example. He also made larger number of drawings and watercolours, which, on his return to Milan, became the basis for several larger compositions (fig. 1). These paintings marked the beginning of Mariani’s artistic success, selling well in exhibitions in Milan (1881 and 1882), Rome (1883) and Nice (1883).

Fig. 1, Pompeo Mariani, A view of Cairo from the banks of the Nile,

oil on canvas, Musei Civici Monza

Mariani experimented with portraiture in the following years, though specialised above all in landscapes and seascapes (fig. 2), generally executed in a dazzling impressionistic technique. Mariani’s success continued with portrait commissions from King Umberto I and regular acclaim at exhibitions in both Italy and further afield. From the 1890s, Mariani lived in Bordighera, then a fashionable seaside town on the Ligurian Riviera. There he met his future wife, the opera singer Marcellina Caronni. The couple settled together in a large villa known as Le Specola, where Mariani displayed, alongside his own artworks, an impressive collection of paintings by artists such as Goya, Courbet and Degas.

Fig. 2, Pompeo Mariani, Seascape at Bordighera, oil on panel, 61 x 46 cm,

Fondazione Cariplo