Page 125 - Orient Collection

56. Choosing The Favorite

Artist: Fabio FABBI, Italian, (1861-1946)
Execution date (approximate): 1906
Téchnique: Oil on Canvas, (signed lower left)
Measures: 152 x 112 cm.
Description: The Exoticism and mysteries around the Harems developed the imagination
of the Artists to paint extremely attractive scenes well demanded by the Lovers of Art. A
scene inspired from the exoticism, illusions, and dreams of the artists about Harem, and
the choosing of the Favorites for the Sultans.

Exhibition
Austria, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems-Stein: 14.08.2005 – 13.11.2005. “Harem Des Orients.”

Publications
• Harem Des Orients, p. 62.

Biography
Fabio Fabbi was an Italian painter, and sculpture creator. He studied painting and
sculpture at the academy of Fine Arts in Florence (Italy), at the atelier of Auguste
Rivelta. In the early 1880s, he traveled to Paris, Munich, and to Egypt. Then he came back
to Italy to paint. He painted scenes de genre, portraits, typical subjects, watercolors,
pastels, and mainly Orientalist paintings. He received many awards in both paintings
and sculptures. He exhibited in Monaco, Torino, from 1884, and received awards in
1899, and others in Florence in 1888, and also in Milan. He was appointed professor of
the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence in 1893, and appointed Member of the Academy
of Fine Arts of Bologna in 1894. He was awarded the title “ Cavaliere della Corona
d’Italia” in 1898.
He painted mainly Orientalist subjects, such as odalisques, slave markets, oriental
bazaars, and women in Harem. He painted with an unequal technique. His carrier was
a success on the academic and commercial plans. He realized more paintings than his
fellow artists, with a very receptive public.

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