Carlo Bossoli¶
Carlo Bossoli (Italian: Carlo Bossoli) — Italian-Swiss artist, landscape painter, and battle painter, author of the famous album of Crimean lithographs "The Beautiful Scenery and Chief Places of Interest throughout the Crimea" (1856). His works are a valuable iconographic source for the study of Crimea in the mid-19th century.
Biography¶
Born in 1815 in the Swiss city of Lugano. When the future artist was 5 years old, his family moved to Odesa. It was in Ukraine (in Odesa and Crimea) that Bossoli developed as an artist.
Crimean Album¶
In 1840–1842, Bossoli traveled across the entire Crimean Peninsula, creating numerous sketches. During the Crimean War, in 1855, he visited Crimea again — this time as a war artist, creating several dramatic battle scenes.
In 1856, the London publishing house "Day & Son" published an album of 52 colored lithographs by Bossoli. For the publication, the artist personally selected works from the "peaceful" series and determined their order of arrangement, striving to create a cohesive artistic work that would encompass the richness of Crimean nature and the diversity of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the peninsula.
Among the notable works of the album is the lithograph "russian Burial-Ground. On the shores of the Putrid Sea, near Perekop" ("russian Cemetery. On the shore of the Putrid Sea near Perekop"), which depicts the Cossack cemetery near Perekop. Despite the name, the characteristic trefoil crosses indicate that the burials belonged to the Zaporozhian Cossacks.
Significance for the History of Crimea¶
Bossoli's album documented a number of Crimean landmarks that have not survived to the present day, making his works an invaluable source for historians, archaeologists, and local historians. Of particular value are the depictions of objects that have disappeared or been destroyed in later periods.
Sources and Links¶
- The "russian" cemetery in Crimea... with Cossack crosses — Article by Serhii Konashevych about the Cossack cemetery in Bossoli's lithograph ("Krymska svitlytsia", 2017, No. 7).
- Cossack cemetery near Perekop — Cossack cemetery documented by Bossoli in the 1856 lithograph.
- Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856 in the Kherson region — Context of the Crimean War, during which Bossoli visited the peninsula for the second time.
- Vikentiy Russen — Feodosia artist of French origin, a contemporary of Bossoli, who in the 1840s documented the mosques of southeastern Crimea in lithographs.
- Kostiantyn Bohayevsky — Feodosia watercolor artist who in the 1920s continued the work of documenting Crimean landmarks.
- Mosques of the southeast of Crimea (in drawings and lithographs) — Monuments of Crimean Tatar architecture documented by artist-documentarians.