12 Facts About Amedeo Preziosi

Amedeo Preziosi was a Maltese painter and traveler known for his watercolours and prints of the Balkans, Ottoman Empire, and Romania.

Amedeo Preziosi was born in 1816 to a noble family in Malta.

Amedeo, the first child of the Preziosi family, was baptised in the Porto Salvo Church in Valletta and given the name Aloysius-Rosarius-Amadeus-Raymundus-Andreas.

Two years later, in 1844, Amedeo Preziosi was commissioned by Robert Curzon, the private secretary of the British Ambassador to Istanbul, Lord Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe to create an album called Costumes of Constantinople, which now is located in the collections of the British Museum.

Amedeo Preziosi published a second album, Souvenir du Caire, comprising drawings he made during a trip to Egypt.

Amedeo Preziosi married a Greek woman of Istanbul, with whom he had four children: Mathilde, Giulia, Catherine and Roberto, living in Hamalbasi Sokagi in Pera and later in the quiet village of San Stefano, away from the agitation of the city.

Amedeo Preziosi was proficient in the languages of the region, as well as major European languages and he worked as deputy of the dragoman of the British Embassy as well as the First Dragoman of the Greek legation.

Amedeo Preziosi's workshop was routinely visited by tourists wishing to return home with a souvenir of Istanbul, and among his guests was, in April 1869, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, then the Prince of Wales, who bought several watercolours from him.

In 1866, as the new Prince of Romania, Carol I visited Istanbul, he met Amedeo Preziosi and invited him to Romania to make watercolours of the landscapes and people of the country.

Amedeo Preziosi continued his art in Istanbul, but as photography became widespread, his watercolours were no longer as profitable, since cheap and unlimited numbers of copies could be made of a particular photograph.

Amedeo Preziosi was killed by an accidental gun discharge while hunting.

Amedeo Preziosi was buried in the Catholic cemetery of Santo Stefano, Istanbul.