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


 
FRANCESCO PAOLO MICHETTI
(Tocco da Casauria 1851 - Francavilla al Mare 1929)
TATONE, 1875

Etching, 1875, titled, dated and signed in the plate Tatone / 75 / P Michetti. Very good impression in black in, on wove paper. To the platemark 160 x 120 mm, the full sheet 327 x 248 mm.
Michetti's activity as an etcher took place in Paris, in 1875, encouraged by the printer and publisher Alfred Cadart, himself an amateur printmaker. Unlike other plates printed in large circulation by Cadart in Paris, this is a rare etching.
REFERENCES
Davoli A., Mostra dell'acquaforte italiana dell'800. Rassegna storica, Reggio Emilia, 1955; cat. No. 1, p. 26, illustrated.
Prandi Libreria Antiquaria, Incisori occasionali dell'800 e del '900 italiano. Catalogo 176. Reggio Emilia, 1979; cat No. 5, p. 39.

 

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.