Gabrielo Bartolomeo Casessi (Italian, 1840-1900):
Russian marine painter of Italian origin. He was born in 1840 in southern Italy. In the 1860s-1870s, he received an art education and improved his skills in Florence and Rome. A meeting with the great Russian marine artist Aivazovsky at his exhibition in 1874 became a key moment in Casessi's work. Impressed by the master's art, Casessi, at the invitation of Aivazovsky, went to Feodosia to study the skill of the great marine artist. From this moment on, most of Casessi's paintings were imbued with a strong influence of Aivazovsky's style. Like his teacher, Casessi strives to convey nature in living movement: sometimes in the form of calm calms, sometimes in the form of formidable elements. His works, depicting the vast expanses of the sea and sky, are always full of poetry and sensuality. In In 1880, Aivazovsky opened a gallery in which he displayed his works alongside those of Cassessi and F. Lagorio, another Italian follower of Aivazovsky. Returning to Italy, Cassessi continued to paint, but his work was now concentrated around landscapes and still lifes. The artist died in 1900, almost at the same time as Aivazovsky.