Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

FRANCESCO CORBARI (Soresina 1826 - Milan 1898) PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI CARNOVALI CALLED IL PICCIO (1873)
Black chalk, pasted on canvas. Signed and dated 'Corbari / Lug. 1873'. 521 x 405 mm. Dedicated in pen 'all'egregio sig. direttore Rizzi / in segno di stima perenne'. A friend of the painter, Corbari identified the body of Piccio died by drowning in early July 1873. This portrait has been drawn a few days after.
LITERATURE: Monumenta Bergomensia, 'Il Piccio, disegni inediti, seconda raccolta', Bergamo, 1974; LO 37, illustrated, fig. 1, p. 3. // Serena Contini, Pierluigi De Vecchi, 'Il Piccio nella collezione di disegni e nelle carte di Piero Chiara', exhibition catalogue, Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Varese, Castello di Masnago, 2007; illustrated p. 32.
EXHIBITED: Museo Civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona, July 2002, for the exhibition 'Enrico Scuri - La fine del classico nelle pittura italiana dell'Ottocento' // Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea di Varese, Castello di Masnago, December 2007, for the exhibition 'Il Piccio nella collezione di disegni e nelle carte di Piero Chiara'.

A pupil of Enrico Scuri, Francesco Corbari was a friend of Piccio. He identified the body of the painter, died by drowning in early July 1873. As a painter and as a draughtsman Corbari was also a quite deceptive imitator of Piccio's work.