L’échoppe du potier

During his studies at the Accademia di San Luca, Bartolini was a contemporary of the painters Enrico Tarenghi and Giuseppe Ferrari. He entered the "École de peinture d'après nature" in 1861, graduating in 1865. But little is known about his career between then and 1880, when he painted one of his first North African watercolors. This was recently exhibited under the title “Entrance to a Mosque” and shows one of the vine-covered alleyways around the Sidi Boumedine mosque in El Eubbad, near Tlemcen, Algeria. 

Bartolini's interest in Tlemcen never waned throughout his life. Bartolini rented one of Nardi's studios in Rome, as did many artists of his time. Although all these artists used “Islamic” themes in their costume scenes, which were very much in vogue at the time, Bartolini had the most in common with Tarenghi. 

In 1881, Bartolini took part, along with other Italians, in an exhibition organized by the "Société des Aquarellistes Belges" in Brussels. Two years later, he visited Paris. Then, with Simoni, who had recently arrived in France from Algeria with his young wife, they exhibited paintings on Algerian themes at the "Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti" in Rome.