In Crimea, they celebrate the 205th anniversary of the artist Carlo Bossoli.

In Crimea, the 205th anniversary of the artist Carlo Bossoli is being celebrated.

The future marine artist and "chronicler of beauty" of the Crimean peninsula, Carlo Bossoli, was born in 1815 in Lugano, Switzerland, into a family of stone masons who moved to Odessa, Russian Empire five years later. Here, the successes of the young painter, who worked in the workshop of the theatrical artist and decorator of the Odessa Opera, Nannini, were noticed by the governor of Novorossiysk and Bessarabia, Count Mikhail Vorontsov. Upon Vorontsov's request, Bossoli created a series of sketches with views of Odessa, based on which his first original album of black and white lithographs was released in 1837. With Vorontsov's assistance in 1840-1842, 25-year-old Carlo Bossoli was able to visit Crimea, traveling the entire peninsula in two years and expressing his enthusiastic impression of its uniqueness in a series of talented watercolors and gouaches, some of which are kept in the Hermitage. Bossoli's works, according to art historians and local historians, are interesting for their accuracy in portraying the features of the Crimean landscape and landmarks, many of which have not survived to this day. To quote Alexander Pushkin's "Taurida", the Italian artist Carlo Bossoli created "where everything shines with eternal glory and beauty." The result of Bossoli's "Crimean voyage" was the album "Landscapes and Landmarks of Crimea", published in London in 1856. Of particular interest is the fact that a year before the album was released, in 1855, Carlo Bossoli visited Crimea again, artistically capturing the destructive actions of the Crimean War of 1853-1856 on the peninsula. However, the album included 52 works from the "peaceful" Crimean series by Bossoli.The album contains 15 lithographs dedicated to Sevastopol and its surroundings. Among Bossoli's works included in the album are: "General view of Sevastopol", "Simferopol", "View of Yalta", "Kerch", "Bakhchisarai", "Kafa, or Feodosia", "Balaklava, view from the shore", "Grotto in Gurzuf", "Vorontsov Palace in Alupka", "Ruins of ancient Chersonese near Sevastopol", "General view of the coast stretching from Cape Fiolent to Sevastopol", and other lithographs covering the extensive historical and geographical space of Crimea. Thanks to the included sketches of landscapes and corners of the peninsula, somehow connected with the military actions that later took place on Crimean land, today we have the opportunity to see what the Crimean peninsula looked like before 1853, to get acquainted with the way of life and customs of the peoples inhabiting Crimea in the first half of the XIX century. It is no coincidence that poet Nikolai Zabolotsky sincerely urged: "Love painting, poets! Only to it, and to it alone, is given the ability to transfer the fleeting features of the soul to canvas!" As local historians note, after Bossoli's trip to Crimea in 1840-1842, an album "24 views of Crimea, taken from nature and lithographed by K. Bossoli in 1842" was released in the typography of the Odessa publisher D. Klenov. 11 lithographs from this album are in the museum collection of the Bakhchisarai Historical and Cultural Archaeological Museum-Preserve, whose employees proudly note that Simferopol, Bakhchisarai, Feodosia, Kerch, Yevpatoria, Sudak and Karasubazar (now - Belogorsk) are depicted in seven lithographs. The remaining reproductions show views of villages, Chersonese, the Georgievsky Monastery, and other locations in Crimea.Other unique Crimean attractions.

In Russia and in the south of the country, Bossoli spent 23 years, becoming a recognized master of painting. But in 1843, yielding to his mother's desire to return to her homeland, Carlo Bossoli left Russia forever, participated in the struggle for Italy's liberation from Austrian rule, capturing these events in his battle paintings, for which he was awarded the title of "Painter of Our History" in Italy. But throughout his life, Bossoli carried memories of the wonderful Crimea, which inspired him to create works that continue to delight and enchant their viewers today. And perhaps not by chance, the architecture of the house that Bossoli built in Turin in the last years of his life reminded contemporaries of the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, which once captivated the imagination of the young painter.

Carlo Bossoli passed away in 1884, at the age of only 69, as an artist who never started his own family. Bossoli was buried in Switzerland, in his hometown of Lugano. But the memory of the great artist, who made Crimea famous with his amazing paintings, continues to live in the hearts of grateful Crimeans.