After Naser al-Din Shah came to power, many painters traveled to Iran as a result of the relationship between the Iranian government and the European governments. They, who were often brought up in Western Academies and knew the techniques of Western painting, by depicting the landscapes of the Eastern lands, especially the Middle East, reached a special way of expression that became known as Orientalism. Alberto Pasini is one of the last and most well-known painters who came to Iran in the middle of the 19^th century, and went to several other Asian and African countries. This is an experience that changes the whole path of his artistic life. Pasini joins the Orientalism style by crossing the Barbizon School. This research, with documentary evidence, some of which have been recently discovered, and with the aim of studying and examining the works of Pasini (an Italian painter of the Naseri period), tries to answer these questions: What approach did Pasini bring to Iran from the painting of his time? Which method and approach has Pasini chosen? How did his objectivism, which was rooted in the principles of Western art, have an effect on the works of other artists of this period in Iran? The result of this research shows that Pasini, who was influenced by the Barbizon School, joined the Orientalism after returning from Iran. While Pasini's meeting with the painters of this period is not visible, except for Naser al-Din Shah, but with the evidence available from other ways, such as gravure postcards, the works of European art masters made an impact on traditional painters such as Mirza Emmi's and Najafalis, as well as western educated artists like Kamal-ol-molk. In this study, the works produced by Alberto Pasini from Iran, including nine oil paintings and two drawings, in addition to his unknown painting in Tehran's Golestan Palace, are discussed, and next to that, three works by three traditional prominent artists are examined: Hosseini Emami, Ahmad Najafali, and Hossein Musavar-ol-Mulki, who were inspired by a famous painting by Ingres, one of the pioneers of Orientalism, which came to them through a postcard.
During the Qajar era, many European painters came to Iran, often made their ways to the court. Alberto Pasini is the most famous artist, after Jules Laurens, and one of the last official ambassadors who also had the longest stay at the court. He was the envoy from the French government to Naser al-Din Shah, the King of Iran, who had just sat on the throne. During his mission, Pasini did valuable works of drawing, painting and engraving from Iran’s landscapes and cities. He belonged to the era when painters were generally depicting historical and mythological subjects. Ingres believed, like many other classical masters, that Raphael should be revived, on the other hand, Delacroix was a radical painter, and Courbet got his own way. Pasini came to Iran when the photograph had just been recognized as a document for representation in foreign missions, which is why he benefited from objective naturalism and, as recently revealed, the use of photography in his works. It seems that during his stay in Tehran, Pasini was often in the court and he went hunting with Naser al-Din Shah. He then drew many landscapes from unknown regions and painted them when he returned to Europe. There is no document of his meeting with other artists of this period in Iran.
Orientalism in the 18^th century during the Age of Enlightenment, and the Barbizon School in the mid-19^th century, are two important artistic events that continue into the 20^th century. In the West, the interest in the Eastern culture, which was aroused by the publication of the first translation of Golestan, written by the Iranian poet Saadi, and the translation of One Thousand and One Nights, then found many followers among Romantics, Realists, Academists, Barbizon artists, Impressionists and even later modernists such as Kandinsky and Matisse. By turning their backs on conventional mythological or historical subjects, and being interested in nature and the ordinary beauty of its environment, the Barbizon artists were able to adopt personal methods, emphasizing outdoor painting instead of painting in the closed space of the studio. They did not create a unique school, but due to their distance from prevailing idealism in art, they claimed poetic art, like realists and especially naturalists. Alberto Pasini, a follower of this movement, came to Iran with the poetic nature he was interested in. In addition to influencing the artists of this period, he could be a precursor to the school known as Kamal-ol-molk, as well as to make a name for himself.
Alberto Pasini was born in 1826, in the small town of Busto in Parma, Italy. Two years later, his father died and Alberto's mother took him to Parma with four other children. In Parma, Alberto began to learn painting under the tutelage of his uncle, who was an accomplished painter and illustrators. At the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma in the department of landscape painting to pursue his interest more seriously. Like many painters of that time, he also sought success, and with the encouragement of one of his professors at the Academy, he went to Paris in 1852. First, he joined the Barbizon group in a village near the forest in the suburbs of Paris where many painters such as Theodore Rousseau, Corot, and Courbet frequented visited. The Barbizon community was strongly opposed to the historical subjects of academic painters and tended to paint from nature. They started plein air painting, which was later carried forward by the Impressionists. The Barbizon's worked on their painting half way in nature and then completed it in their studios.
Among the many European painters and photographers who came to Iran during the Naseri period, none had the fame of Alberto Pasini, to the extent that he was entitled the Prince of Orientalists. By traveling to Iran, he could get acquainted with various aspects of Islamic art and tradition, give them a new depth in his works. The path that begins with Laurens and Pasini was manifested in Iranian painting in different ways which were not as rigid as the academic methods, and not as free and unrestricted as the romantic methods, but had the ability to go beyond cheap imitative realism.
Pasini should be considered as one of the last generation of painters of the nineteenth century who still directly understand and represent the reality, the generation of painters who still haven't completely forgotten to look as a result rampant photography. Although Pasini's paintings try to show reality, they are not photolike paintings.
Among the works attributed to Pasini during his trip to Iran, there are no portrait paintings, which seems to have more to do with his stark realism than with his skill in portraiture, and perhaps with moral-cultural considerations.
In the works of the artists of that time, as shown in the work of Hosseini Emami in the reproduction of a portrait by Ingres, objectification and imitation are still far from the standards of Western painting. The tendency to paint religious places such as mosques or bazaars and abandoning the portraits of courtiers and elites and turning to landscape painting in the Sschool of Kamal-ol-molk is considered a bold and modern action, the roots of which should be sought in western painting and the presence of western painters in Iran. In this way, the influence of Pasini and other orientalists on Iranian painting during the Qajar period can even be compared with the influence of photography during this period.