Count Amadeo Preziosi (Maltese, 1816-1882)

Amadeo, the fifth count Preziosi, is best known and admired for his depictions of Istanbul, the city he made his home and favourite subject. After studying at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, he left Europe for the city at the age of twenty-six and never returned.

'It is Istanbul, with its winding streets, markets, picturesque excursion places and curious sights, whose life and true substance Monsieur Amadeo Preziosi presents to us in his watercolours. Certainly one rarely encounters an artist who has left his homeland at a young age, and made a home for himself in the bosom of a civilisation little known even in Europe. This is an artist whose eyes have been rinsed in the splendid light of the Orient, enabling him to capture the depth of its meaning and enjoy the happiness of sensing the strength and capacity of its spirit' (V. Champier, in the foreword to A. Preziosi, Éncyclopédie des Arts decoratifs de l'Orient: Stamboul - Moeurs et Costumes, Paris, 1883).