Ettore Roesler Franz

Ettore Roesler Franz (11 May 1845 – 26 March 1907) was an Italian painter and photographer. He was among the most prolific Italian watercolorists and vedutisti of the late nineteenth century.

Biography He was born to a family of German ancestry, that had moved to Rome from Sudetenland at the beginning of the 18th century. After attending a Catholic school, he began his artistic studies at the age of eighteen at the Accademia di San Luca.

His best known works are a series now known as "Roma Sparita" (Vanished Rome). It consists of 120 watercolors (roughly 20x30 in.), divided into three sets of forty, and created from 1878 to 1896. They depict parts of Rome that were in danger of disappearing as the city became more urbanized and modern. Many have vanished or changed dramatically, so these works constitute an invaluable historical record. He was also one of the first artists to paint scenes in the Roman Ghetto.

His clients over the following decades included Empress Maria Feodorovna, Kings Victor Emmanuel II and Umberto I, and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. He was named a Knight in the Order of the Crown of Italy in 1890. During the early 1900s, he was a regular participant in the Venice Biennale.

He died at his home on the Piazza San Claudio, aged sixty-two, and was interred at the Campo Verano.

Selected paintings