Count Amadeo Preziosi (Maltese, 1816-1882)

Preziosi made several variants of this image of a man on a donkey, slowly climbing the hill, while a group of picturesque ladies sit gossiping by the side of the track. The view is taken from above Kanlıca, and in the distance can be seen Rumelihisarı, the Castle of Europe, perhaps the most distinctive historic feature on the shores of the Bosporus. It was from this castle, which he had built in four months and sixteen days, that Mehmet the Conqueror launched his attack on Constantinople in 1453.
We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn and Charles Newton for their assistance in cataloguing the present lot.