Wagner. The idea was at first rejected by Wagner's wife Cosima, but was carried out by Passini and the sculptor Augusto Benvenuti under the agreement, and eye, of Cosima's daughter, Daniela. 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. 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. In 1878 Passini was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour, 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. Reception Passini exhibited in the Italian Fine Arts Section of the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle. The art critic Philip Gilbert Hamerton described Italian painting of the time as playful to the point of being childish, although original with direct observation of nature. Passini's work for the Exposition was considered by critics to have saved the quality of Italian art shown. The Viennese author and critic Ludwig Hevesi believed Passini to be "the major watercolour painter of Venice... who grew rapidly to be the most important genre painter." Art historian Wilhelm Lübke described Passini's work: "Admirable character-pictures of Southern life may be found in the masterly watercolours of Ludwig Passini, with their beautifully-finished colouring." The 19th-century arts magazine The Aldine in 1878 described Passini's pictures as "showing a skill in studying the human face, and an appreciation of its expressions, which indicate natural gift even more than close study... [and] the careful drawing and skillful posing of... figures." Selected works Monks Buying Fish at the Portal of the Madonna della Misericordia (1855) Salone of the Palazzo Barbaro (1855) Cafè Greco in Rome (1856), Kunsthalle Hamburg Roman Fish Market at Sant'Angelo in Pescheria (1863) The confessional (1863) The interior of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (1867) The Latin Class (1869) A Shared Confidence (1870) Praying in a Venetian church (1873) Bridge at the Riva degli Schiavoni –