Mattia Jona La Portantina +39 02 8053315 mattjona@mattiajona.com


 
ANTONIO MANCINI
(Rome 1852 - 1930)
PORTRAIT OF MATHILDE DUFFAUD

Pen and brush with black and gray ink; signed Mancini. 167 x 127 mm.
PROVENANCE: Francesco Messina (1900-1995)
EXHIBITED: L’Arte nella Vita del Mezzogiorno d’Italia, Mostra di Arti figurative e di Arti applicate dell’Italia Meridionale, Rome, 1953

Mancini was a very precocious artist: he arrived in Naples in 1865, entering the Institute of Fine Arts when he was only twelve years old, and studied there under Filippo Palizzi and Morelli. His early works center around themes of everyday reality, like the sculptures of his friend Vincenzo Gemito. In 1872 Mancini exhibited two paintings at the Paris Salon and in his first trip to Paris in 1875 he met the Impressionists, a contact which pushed his art toward a more luminous, painterly style. He painted for the art dealer Goupil and worked also for Mesdag, the Dutch dealer and collector. In 1883, Mancini settled permanently in Rome; he lived in Frascati from 1912 until 1918 as guest in Villa Jacobini, owned by his patron Fernand du Chene de Vère.