Ettore Roesler Franz (11 May 1845 – 26 March 1907) was an Italian painter and photographer. He was among the most prolific Italian

watercolorist Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

s and

vedutisti A ''veduta'' (Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre ...

of the late nineteenth century.

Biography

He was born to a family of German ancestry, that had moved to Rome from

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

at the beginning of the 18th century. After attending a Catholic school, he began his artistic studies at the age of eighteen at the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

. From 1864 to 1872, he was employed at the British consulate, where he met

Joseph Severn Joseph Severn (7 December 1793 – 3 August 1879) was an English portrait and subject painter and a personal friend of the famous English poet John Keats. He exhibited portraits, Italian genre, literary and biblical subjects, and a selec ...

, an artist who was serving as

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

. It was Severn who first introduced him to watercolors, the medium that would become his preferred technique. In 1875, he and

Nazzareno Cipriani Nazzareno Cipriani (23 October 1843, Rome - 1925, Rome) was an Italian painter and watercolorist; known for his views of Venice and his Genre art, genre scenes. Biography He was descended from a Venetian family. During his studies, he served ...

developed a proposal that would become the (Association of Watercolorists). Eight other artists would join as founding members:

Cesare Biseo Cesare Biseo (April 18, 1843 – January 25, 1909) was an Italian painter, known primarily for his orientalist scenes. Biography He was born to Giovanni Battista Biseo (1815-1865), a decorative and restorative painter from Brescia. He received ...

Vincenzo Cabianca Vincenzo Cabianca (June 21, 1827, Verona – March 21, 1902, Rome) was an Italian painter of the Macchiaioli group. Biography He was born in Verona in modest circumstances. He began his artistic training at the Verona Academy under Giovanni Cali ...

Onorato Carlandi Onorato Carlandi (15 May 1848, in Rome – 11 April 1939, in Rome) was an Italian painter, mainly of watercolors of Rome, the surrounding countryside and of Great Britain. He was married to the painter, Lina Haverty (?-1950), daughter of the Iri ...

, Pio Joris,

Cesare Maccari Cesare Maccari (; 9 May 1840 – 7 August 1919) was an Italian painter and sculptor, most famous for his 1888 painting ''Cicerone denuncia Catilina'' (usually translated as ''Cicero Accuses Catiline'' or ''Cicero Denounces Catiline''). Early l ...

, Attilio Simonetti, Gustavo Simoni, and the Spaniard, Ramón Tusquets. They had their first exhibition in 1876.Francesco Franco (2017)
Roesler Franz, Ettore
(in Italian). ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Volume 88. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed April 2018. His best known works are a series now known as "Roma Sparita" (Vanished Rome). It consists of 120 watercolors (roughly 20x30 in.), divided into three sets of forty, and created from 1878 to 1896. They depict parts of Rome that were in danger of disappearing as the city became more urbanized and modern. Many have vanished or changed dramatically, so these works constitute an invaluable historical record.Carlo Bernoni and Renato Mammucari, ''Roma Sparita nelle fotografie di Ettore Roesler Franz'', Roma, Newton & Compton Editori, 2001 He was also one of the first artists to paint scenes in the

Roman Ghetto The Roman Ghetto or Ghetto of Rome ( it, Ghetto di Roma) was a Jewish ghettos in Europe, Jewish ghetto established in 1555 in the Sant'Angelo (rione of Rome), Rione Sant'Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by present-day Via del Portic ...

. His clients over the following decades included Empress Maria Feodorovna, Kings

Victor Emmanuel II Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...

and

Umberto I Umberto I ( it, Umberto Rainerio Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Ferdinando Eugenio di Savoia; 14 March 1844 – 29 July 1900) was King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900. Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colo ...

, and

Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse English: Frederick William Louis Charles , house = Hesse-Darmstadt , father = Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine , mother = Princess Elisabeth of Prussia , birth_date = , birth_place = Prinz-Carl-Palais, Darmstadt, Gra ...

. He was named a Knight in the

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( it, Ordine della Corona d'Italia, italic=no or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civi ...

in 1890. During the early 1900s, he was a regular participant in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. He died at his home on the Piazza San Claudio, aged sixty-two, and was interred at the

Campo Verano The Campo Verano (Italian: ''Cimitero del Verano'') is a cemetery in Rome, Italy, founded in the early 19th century. The monumental cemetery is currently divided into sections: the Jewish cemetery, the Catholic cemetery, and the monument to the ...

Selected paintings

File:TorreDellaScimmiaByRoeslerFranz.jpg, File:SanCrisogonoByRoeslerFranz.jpg,

San Crisogono San Crisogono is a church in Rome (rione Trastevere) dedicated to the martyr Saint Chrysogonus. It was one of the tituli, the first parish churches of Rome, and was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Sylvester I (314–335). The ...

File:Via dell’Arco di S. Marco.jpg, Via dell'Arco di
San Marco File:PiazzaBarberiniByRoeslerFranz.jpg,

Piazza Barberini Piazza Barberini is a large piazza in the ''centro storico'' or city center of Rome, Italy and situated on the Quirinal Hill. It was created in the 16th century but many of the surrounding buildings have subsequently been rebuilt. The current ...

Image:PonteRottoByRoeslerFranz.jpg,

Ponte Rotto The Pons Aemilius ( it, Ponte Emilio), today called Ponte Rotto, is the oldest Roman stone bridge in Rome, Italy. Preceded by a wooden version, it was rebuilt in stone in the 2nd century BC. It once spanned the Tiber, connecting the Forum Boarium ...

Image:ArcoDelleAzimelleInGhettoByRoeslerFranz.jpg, Roman Ghetto File:AlbergoDellOrsoByRoeslerFranz.jpg, Albergo dell'Orso

References

External links

More works by Roesler Franz
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Roesler Franz, Ettore 1845 births 1907 deaths 19th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian painters Painters from Rome Italian photographers Italian male painters Italian people of German descent Orientalist painters 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links