![Fausto Zonaro - La Sultana [1920s]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3860/14910345426_45bd57feb3_o.jpg)
La Sultana was painted in Zonaro's studio in Saint Remo in the 1920s, a souvenir of his time in Constantinople, where he had held the prestigious position of court painter to the last Ottoman sultan. Settling with his family in Italy in 1911 after twenty-one years in the Ottoman capital, and despite missing his life in Constantinople enormously, Zonaro (Italian, 1854 - 1929) wrote in his memoirs, 'I continue to work with all my strength and with all the respect and excitement I feel for my art. The allure of the Orient still holds me in its thrall.'
Painting his chosen model, with her sultry exotic looks, in Turkish costume perhaps provided some solace and kept Zonaro's cherished memories of Turkey alive, at a time when, to satisfy popular demand, he was turning increasingly to landscape painting and views of surrounding Liguria.
[Sotheby’s, London - Oil on canvas, 64.5 x 85.5 cm]