An extremely rare working proof of the 1874 etching published in the Album della Società degli Acquafortisti (Year I, Fascicle I), which reproduces an oil painting exhibited in Milan at AMART 2023.
This fine, crisp impression on chine appliqué (sheet: 315 x 429 mm; plate: 208 x 245 mm) is signed in the plate TSignorini and dedicated in ink to Cesare Fantacchiotti.
Only one other impression of this state, featuring a dedication to Diego Martelli, is recorded in the Uffizi Gallery collection (G.D.S.U., inv. GAM 1628), accessible through the Cultural Heritage catalog.
Signorini was a writer, theoretician and the spokesman for the Macchiaioli. He was also the first of the group, together with Borrani, to paint outdoors. Signorini was a passionate free spirit, who spent most of his life wandering in Italy and the capitals of Europe, always eventually returning to Florence. He frequently traveled to Paris and London, to sell and exhibit his works, at the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery in London, and with the dealers Goupil and Reitlinger in Paris. He also visited Boldini and De Nittis in Paris and became interested in the work of Manet and Degas. Signorini's style was unique among the Macchiaioli. His interest in nature and landscape was more objective and analytical. For a time his palette was influenced by the Impressionists, but in his later period he returned to purer color. Signorini was a splendid draftsman and printmaker.