"Calm at sea"

"Calm at sea"

Author: Gabrielo Bartolomeo Casessi

blank, oil 43.5 x 68.5 cm

Gabrielo Bartolomeo Casessi (1840-1900) was an Italian artist, best known as a consistent and talented pupil of Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900). .   Gabrielo Casessi was from the south of Italy. In the 1860s and 70s, he received art education in Rome and Florence. Seeing Aivazovsky's seascapes and communicating with their author inspired Casessi to travel from Italy to the Russian Empire. At the invitation of Aivazovsky in 1878, Casessi became a student of the "Universal Workshop" — Ivan Konstantinovich's own school in Feodosia, where both beginners and experienced artists could study. So an Italian appeared among the marinist's students. By the way, Casessi was not the first Italian student of Aivazovsky: about thirty years before Ivan Konstantinovich, the son of a Genoese merchant, a native of Feodosia, Lev Felixovich Lagorio (1827-1905), took painting lessons from Ivan Konstantinovich.Since moving to Feodosia, Gabrielo Bartolomeo Casessi's painting style has been strongly influenced by Aivazovsky. Like his teacher, Casessi sought to convey the sea element in living motion and in different states — from calm to storm. Casessi's marinas were filled with the poetry and sensuality characteristic of the Feodosian school. In 1880, Aivazovsky opened a gallery in Feodosia, where he placed the best works of his students, including works by Gabrielo Casessi, next to his paintings.