HAGIA SOPHIA

FOSSATI, Gaspare (1809-1883); attributed to].

[Interior of the Hagia Sophia before the restoration]. [Istanbul:  circa 1845]. Pen-and-ink, watercolour and tempura.  Linen-backed at an early date.

Sheet size: 75 X 55 cm.

 A large mid-19th century watercolour of the interior the famed Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The famed Swiss-Italian architect Gaspare Fossati, along with his brother Giuseppe, arrived in Constantinople in 1838, where they would remain and work for twenty years.  Between 1847 and 1849, under the orders of Sultan Abdulmecid, the Fossati brothers supervised a major restoration of the Hagia Sophia.  The present watercolour, unsigned but attributed to Gaspare Fossati from other similar works, depicts the interior of the Hagia Sophia before the restoration, as evidenced by the square plaques on the walls which were replaced by circular ones during the work.  For a similar printed view, see the plate titled “L’intérieur de la mosquée, avant sa restauration” in the 1852 portfolio of lithographs issued by Louis Haghe after watercolours by Fossati.

* acquired from Donald Heald of New York at 2012.