In the 1860s, Italian art saw a rejection of tradition and a self-conscious pursuit of new directions that had that been evident elsewhere in Europe since the start of the century. In the wake of the wars of independence beginning in 1848, the country’s unification in 1861, and ensuing enthusiasm about new possibilities, subjects from mythology and antiquity were rapidly replaced by current events, episodes from recent Italian literature, scenes of daily life and, above all, nature. At the same time, as romantic exaltation of individual sensibility undermined the academy’s authority, artists put a new priority on expressing their own imagination and hand. Pure etching, which had been largely displaced during the previous century, proved an ideal vehicle for this romantic sensibility, and the technique flourished in both original works and interpretations of the era’s paintings. Within these broad developments, however, Italian art retained distinctive features; artists in each major center—Turin, Rome, Naples, and Milan—pursued quite separate goals and cultivated very different accents. The works in the room pictured are grouped according to that geography. Gifted with technical ability born of academic training, but exuberant in their release from its constraints, Italian artists of the period were prone to eccentric imagery and extravagant articulation, as in the works of Mariano Fortuny, Francesco Paolo Michetti, and Luigi Conconi. Similarly, tradition had reigned for so long, and change had come so quickly, that there arose new uncertainties. Their expression, in the mystical tone of the works of Domenico Morelli and Vittore Grubicy, qualified and in ways contradicted the new reality.
The New Reality
Turin
Antonio Fontanesi
Reggio Emilia, 1818–Turin, 1882
Fishing (La pesca), 1864
etching on chine collé, proof before letters
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.18
Antonio Fontanesi
Reggio Emilia, 1818–Turin, 1882
Fisherman on the Lakeshore (Pescatore sulla riva del lago), c. 1864
etching on chine collé, proof before letters
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.17
Fontanesi was one of the most poetic landscape painters in nineteenth-century Italy. Around 1860, inspired by French contemporaries such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, his printmaking turned from generic urban views to etchings of gentle bucolic subjects, characterized by subtle tonal modulation and delicate touch. Fontanesi’s prints inaugurated the revival of the technique of etching as a means of personal artistic expression in Italy. Although few of them were published in a large edition—Italy lacked a developed culture of print collecting—they inspired many printmakers in the northern Italian city of Turin through the second half of the century.
Celestino Turletti
Turin, 1845–1904
What Is It? (Che c’è?), after Stefano Bruzzi, 1887
etching on chine collé
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.6
Rome
Mariano Fortuny y Carbó
Reus (Tarragona, Spain), 1838–Rome, 1874
A Moroccan Woman in Traditional Dress, 1866
watercolor with touches of gum, heightened with white gouache
Purchased as the Gift of Alexander M. and Judith W. Laughlin, 2013.176.1
Fortuny’s visit to Morocco in 1860 inspired his fondness for exotic subjects, such as this Moroccan woman and the adjacent etching of a dead Algerian. The striking palette, remarkably varied textures of materials, loosely applied pigment, and freedom of handling exemplify the qualities that Fortuny’s contemporaries greatly admired in his work. Spanish born, Fortuny traveled incessantly but spent much of his last decade in Rome. His etchings, all made in this late period, inspired a generation of Italian printmakers to take up the technique and echo his style.
Mariano Fortuny y Carbó
Reus (Tarragona, Spain), 1838–Rome, 1874
Dead Kabyle (Kabyle mort), 1867
etching and aquatint
Purchased as the Gift of Jimmy and Jessica Younger, Houston, 2013.116.2
Pio Joris
Rome, 1843–1921
A View in Subiaco, 1873
watercolor
Joan and David Maxwell Fund, 2014.92.1
Giuseppe Signorini
Rome, 1857–1932
A Moorish Soldier before a Sunlit Wall, 1878
watercolor over graphite
Purchased as the Gift of Alexander M. and Judith W. Laughlin, 2014.53.2
Naples
Francesco Paolo Michetti
Tocco da Casauria (Pescara), 1851–Francavilla al Mare (Chieti), 1929
Keeper of the Turkeys (Gardeuse de dindons), 1876
etching and roulette, proof before letters
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.20
Domenico Morelli
Naples, 1823–1901
The Artist’s Daughter Eleonora Reclining on a Chaise Longue, 1879
pen and ink with wash on light blue multicolor fiber wove paper
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2013.70.1
This drawing epitomizes the intimate realism, unaffected expression, and spontaneous execution of Morelli’s art. Although he was academically trained and depicted primarily conventional historical subjects in the first part of his long career, a visit to Paris in 1855 precipitated a shift toward naturalism. At the same time, the distinctive scatter of pen work and the resulting ill-defined form hint at the vague representation and ambiguous meaning that would come to characterize Morelli’s late style.
Domenico Morelli
Naples 1826–1901
Personification of Engraving (Allegoria dell’incisione), 1879
etching, aquatint, and drypoint
Purchased as the Gift of Matthew and Ann Nimetz, 2014.107.2
Francesco Paolo Michetti
Tocco da Casauria (Percara), 1851–Francavilla al Mare (Chieti), 1929
Satan Rides and Drives the World, 1882
charcoal and white chalk on gray paper
Purchased as the Gift of Dian Woodner, 2014.52.1
This image of Satan holding reins and crouched atop the world alludes to Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, in which the Clown uses an old English proverb to explain his desire to marry: “I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.” Here, fierce wit and sheer graphic force bring the image to life. Michetti had many literary acquaintances, the closest of whom was the celebrated poet and critic Gabriele D’Annunzio. Their relationship began in 1880, with Michetti’s art becoming a frequent topic of the author. D’Annunzio’s critique of naturalism encouraged the artist’s interest in more metaphoric content. Shakespeare was one of D’Annunzio’s favorite authors. It is easy to imagine this drawing arising from conversations between artist and writer, moreover to recognize D’Annunzio’s features in those of Satan.
Francesco Paolo Michetti
Tocco da Casauria (Pescara), 1851–Francavilla al Mare (Chieti), 1929
Southern Italian Woman Dressed for Church, 1885/88
pastel and chalks on faded blue-gray paper
Florian Carr Fund and The Ahmanson Foundation, 2012.145.1
This drawing is a study for an important painting of Michetti’s maturity, The Mocking (Il Dileggio), which shows a group of peasant women dressed for church in their finest clothing, walking along a riverbank past a group of jeering men. It is typical of both the artist’s interest in the popular culture of his native Abruzzi region and his turn in the 1880s from straightforward realism to moral and eventually symbolic themes. The drawing hints at the poses of the principal women in the painting but really attends more to their costume. While its beautifully modulated color reflects Michetti’s recent mastery of pastel, its extreme sensitivity to light bespeaks his growing interest in photography.
Vincenzo Gemito
Naples, 1852–1929
Portrait of a Youth, 1923
chalk with stumping and white chalk heightening on tan multifiber wove paper
Gift of Faya Causey in memory of Catherine Lees Causey, 2012.124.1
The leading sculptor in late nineteenth-century Naples, Gemito was active also in Paris (1877–1880), and was celebrated especially as a portraitist. A characteristic late work, this study expresses complete mastery and unwavering belief in traditional academic practice. In motif and handling, as well as in the subject’s patrician features, it could practically have arisen in early sixteenth-century Rome or late seventeenth-century Paris. Such drawings represent an extension of the dialogue between classicism and realism, well into the period of modernism and non-representational art.
Milan
Giberto Borromeo
Milan, 1815–1885
Forest on Lago Maggiore (Foresta sul Lago Maggiore), 1870
etching, proof before letters
The Ahmanson Foundation, 2013.31.5
Mosè Bianchi
Monza (Milan), 1840–1904
A Miracle (Un miracle), 1874
etching with aquatint on chine collé
Purchased as the Gift of Matthew and Ann Nimetz, 2014.63.1
Francesco Colombi Borde
Cremona, 1846–1905
Hunting Dogs (Cani di caccia), after Paolo Sala, 1889
etching, proof before letters
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.10
The revival of pure, artistic etching was not limited to the original works of painters like Fontanesi, Fortuny, and Bianchi. From the same time, starting in the 1860s, reproductive printmakers turned to the technique, with its potential for more convincing naturalism and vigorous personal expression, for their interpretations of new kinds of painting that ranged from scenes of recent history to subjects from literature and daily life (such as the contemporary painter Sala’s popular depictions of animals). Colombi Borde, along with Turletti and Pagliano, were masters of this of type of print.
Eleuterio Pagliano
Casale Monferrato (Alessandria), 1826–Milan, 1903
Indian Summer (L’Estate di San Martino), c. 1883
etching on chine collé
The Ahmanson Foundation, 2013.31.9
Luigi Conconi
Milan, 1852–1917
The Contemplative Life (Vita contemplativa), c. 1883
etching
Purchased as the Gift of Matthew and Ann Nimetz, 2013.115.4
Conconi was a leader of the Scapigliatura, a principally Milanese movement of “disheveled” or “unkempt” artists who rejected middle-class values and embraced a bohemian lifestyle. The subject here was identified by the artist as a self-portrait, though his appearance is limited to a shadow cast upon a dirty and crumbling wall. This, the vegetation, and—most explicitly—the horse’s skull at lower left are reminders of the transience of material things, and of life itself. The title reinforces that meaning. In the context of the Scapigliatura, this theme exhorted viewers to live every day as if it were their last.
Luigi Conconi
Milan, 1852–1917
Intoxication (Ebbrezza), 1888
etching with monotype inking
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.11
Intoxication exemplifies the embrace of the bohemian life and uninhibited self-expression of the Scapigliatura movement: dragging on a cigarette, a woman reclines provocatively amid empty wine glasses on a bunched-up tablecloth. The print is a fine example of how Conconi would establish a composition with a mere framework of etched lines on the plate and then develop the appearance and expressive character of each impression through inking alone. This “monotype inking” was characteristic of printmaking in Milan in the late nineteenth century.
Vittore Grubicy
Milan, 1851–1920
Antwerp: Sunset (Anversa: Tramonto), 1893/1894
aquatint and softground etching with monotype inking, proof touched with graphite and blue pencil on chine collé
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.30.19
Mosè Bianchi
Monza (Milan), 1840–1904
Woods in the Park near Monza, 1895
etching, softground etching, and aquatint
Purchased as the Gift of Matthew and Ann Nimetz, 2013.115.2
The most avant-garde painter in Milan, and the closest in spirit to the French impressionists, Bianchi was also the city’s first artist to explore the full technical and expressive potential of etching. Although the primary focus of his prints was urban life, he turned to landscape in the 1890s. Bianchi also treated religious subjects with originality and devout feeling, as in A Miracle, which alludes to the Resurrection of Christ.
Pompeo Mariani
Monza (Milan), 1857–Bordighera (Imperia), 1927
Reading in a Garden (Lettura in giardino), 1904/1905
color monotype with scraping, additional oil color, graphite, and colored pencils
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2013.31.15
This is an especially beautiful example of Mariani’s work. Taking the Milanese taste for distinctive impressions to its logical conclusion, he made some hundred monotypes, inking or painting the design directly onto a smooth surface and printing a single image. This print of a young woman of society, in seemingly perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape, combines Mariani’s preferred subjects as a painter, while its evanescent color and soft atmosphere evoke the beauty of the Lombard countryside.
Enrico Vegetti
Turin, 1863–Nernier (France), 1951
Pescarenico Seen across the River Adda, 1920s
etching with monotype wiping
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2013.117.3
Venice
Emanuele Brugnoli
Bologna, 1859-Venice, 1944
Campo Santa Maria Formosa, c. 1912
etching and aquatint, working proof touched with graphite
Purchase as a Gift of Matthew and Ann Nimetz, 2013.115.6
Fabio Mauroner
Tissano (Udine), 1884–Venice, 1948
Palazzo Clary, Rio Ognissanti, 1920
etching with monotype wiping
Gift in Honor of J. Russell Sale and Sally Shelburne, 2013.23.1