Passini, Johann Ludwig, 1832-1903

Ludwig Johann Passini (1832–1903) was an Austrian narrative and genre painter and printmaker.

Ludwig Passini was born on 9 July 1832 in Vienna, the son of Louise Passini and the engraver Johann Nepomuk Passini.[1] The Passini family moved to Trieste in 1850. On 9 November 1864 Passini married Anna Warsaw (1841–1866), who was the daughter of Robert and Mary Warschauer, the great-granddaughter of banker Joseph Mendelssohn and the great-great-granddaughter of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. The couple, who lived alternately in Berlin and Rome, had one daughter. Anna died one and a half years after the wedding.

Ludwig Passini died on 6 November 1903 in Venice.
Passini was taught art first by his father, and later studied at the Vienna Academy of Art under the painters Joseph von Führich and Leopold Kupelwieser. In the 1850s, Passini settled in Venice, where he worked in the studio of Carl Werner. The first Venice Biennale was held in 1895 as an exhibition of Italian art. In formulating the Biennale in 1893, the mayor of Venice, Riccardo Selvatico, was advised by a committee of internationally exhibiting artists from many European countries, one being Ludwig Passini.[9]

Passini received medals in Paris (1870), Vienna (1873), Munich (1879), and Berlin (1896). His works were included in exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in London, and he became an honorary member of the latter in 1883. Passini was awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 1893.[1]

In 1878 Passini was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour,[1] and the following year an honorary professor of the Vienna Academy of Art. He was also a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and the Academy of Arts, Venice.[10]