Ludwig Johann PASSINI
 (Vienna, 1832 – Venice, 1903)

 Portraits of Princess ROSPIGLIOSI and Baroness BAUDE née NOMPERE de CHAMPAGNY
 Watercolor
 Signed and dated lower right
 47 x 36 cm
 1863

 Son of the painter-engraver Johann Nepomuk PASSINI (1798-1874), Ludwig was born on July 9, 1832 in Vienna.

 The young PASSINI spent his childhood first in Vienna where he acquired the first rudiments of drawing from his father. He then entered the Vienna Academy with the painters PETTER, Joseph von FÜHRICH, Leopold KUPELWIESER and ENDER as teachers, then at the Leipzig Academy under the teaching of Carl WERNER.

 In the 1850s, the PASSINI family moved to Trieste. Ludwig took the opportunity to study in Venice in the studio of his previous teacher WERNER. He then got into the habit of accompanying him on his study tours in Italy.

 Between 1853 and 1870, we find PASSINI in Rome. In 1864 he married Anna WARSAW with whom he had a daughter who died a year and a half after the marriage.

 He returned to Venice around 1873, where he would eventually settle permanently, with the exception of a few visits to Berlin to present his Venetian watercolors. In 1874, he was also mentioned as a member of the Berlin Academy. At the Universal Exhibition of 1878 in Paris, PASSINI was present in the Italian section. The critics of the time considered that PASSINI's work had saved the quality of the Italian art presented.

 In Venice, PASSINI occupied a workshop for thirty years in the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi which he shared with his colleagues Carlo REICHARDT and Luigi MION. A friend of PASSINI was the exiled Richard WAGNER, who died at the Palais Vendramin Calergi in 1883. PASSINI, with his artist friend WOLKOFF, suggested the creation of a death mask in homage to the virtuoso musician. The idea was initially rejected by WAGNER's wife, Cosima, who eventually relented. The mask was then made by PASSINI and the sculptor Augusto BENVENUTI.

 PASSINI also participated in the organization of the first Venice Biennale in 1895. In fact, when this Biennale was set up in 1893, the mayor of Venice, Riccardo SELVATICO, received advice from a college of international artists of which PASSINI was a member until the project came to fruition.

 The art of watercolour was perfectly mastered by PASSINI as the critics of the time noted. Ludwig HEVESI, a Viennese author and critic, referred to PASSINI as "the leading painter of watercolour in Venice … who quickly grew to become the most important genre painter" (Hevesi, Ludwig (1903); Austrian Art of the 19th Century, part 2: 1848-1900, Seemann, Leipzig, p.236)

 In the same vein, the art historian Wilhelm LÜBKE described PASSINI's work as follows: "One can find admirable images of figures... in the masterly watercolours of Ludwig Passini, with their superbly finished colours" (Lübke, Wilhelm (1878); Outlines of the History of Art. Classic, Dodd Mead, p.264)

 Ludwig PASSINI was awarded medals on numerous occasions and internationally: Paris in 1870, Vienna in 1873, Munich in 1879, Vienna in 1888 and Berlin in 1896. His works were also exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors in London. He became an honorary member of this British institution in 1883.

 In 1879 PASSINI became an honorary professor of the Vienna Academy. He was also a member of the Venice Academy.

 PASSINI was made a knight of the Legion of Honour in 1878 and received the Bavarian Order of Maximilian for Art and Science in 1893.

 Ludwig PASSINI died on November 6, 1903 in Venice.

 Museums : Breslau, Hamburg, Vienna…

 Concerning the models represented, they are two sisters, daughters of Louis Alix NOMPERE de CHAMPAGNY (1796-1870), ambassador to Rome from 1861:

 Seated in black: Françoise Jeanne de NOMPERE de CHAMPAGNY (Paris, 1825 – Florence, 1899) who married Prince Clemente ROSPIGLIOSI (1823-1897) in Rome in 1846. She held a salon in Rome and was a great friend of Franz LITZ. There is also an unpublished correspondent from 1868 to 1885 between the princess and the musician.
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 Standing in white: Marie Adélaïde de NOMPERE de CHAMPAGNY (Pisa, 1838 – Cannes, 1922) who married in Rome in 1863 Baron Georges Napoléon BAUDE, embassy attaché in Rome between 1850 and 1866 then French ambassador.