Circassian cavalrymen outside a gate

The subject of figures and horses outside the gates of a bazaar, mosque or palace featured in the works of Pasini throughout his career, particularly from the late 1870s until the mid-1880s, when his work reached the level of virtuosismo.
The influence of photography is apparent in the soft light and shade, and also in the cropping of the architecture. The Circassian soldiers and their horses have been meticulously rendered. As Lynne Thornton wrote 'he excelled in group compositions of horses, their shiny rumps towards the spectator held by simple soldiers' (L. Thornton, The Orientalists. Painter-travellers, Paris, 1994, p. 144).