(Tocco da Casauria 1851 - Francavilla al Mare 1929)
PORTRAIT OF A BEARDED MAN, c. 1875
Etching. Signed Michetti lower right. Pulled on very thin, simil-Japan paper of yellowish colour. Only state. This is the second known specimen of this extremely rare print. To the platemark 122 x 84 mm, the sheet 290 x 203 mm
Matteo Crespi discovered another impression of this rare etching, pulled on an identical kind of paper, during his unpublished researches on Michetti as an etcher. The research on Michetti as a print maker is today continued by Rosalba Dinoia, who has personally seen the two specimens and confirms their originality. Also the dating of this etching has been proposed as first by Matteo Crespi, who believes that the main activity of Michetti as printmaker took place around 1875, in connection with the Parisian print publisher and dealer Cadart.
Francesco Paolo Michetti was taught at the Accademia in Naples by Morelli, but he also attended the life drawing classes of Filippo Palizzi, who exercised the greatest influence on his development. In 1871 Michetti made his first trip to Paris. There he came in contact with Fortuny, De Nittis and the dealer Goupil and exhibited at the Salons of 1872 and 1875. In 1883 Michetti purchased a convent in his homeland, Abruzzo, as his home and studio. For the next twenty years, the convent was a meeting place for artists and exponents of culture. Abruzzo was Michetti's emotional and aesthetic inspiration: he combined studies from life and extensive photographic documentation, capturing its people, animals, and local events in emotionally charged paintings with luminous colors and vibrant light.
