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1875 - 1878; oil on canvas
cm. 67 x 81,5
Back of frame top left: “S. Agnese 14 / Milano Cavaleri Lodovico”
Inventory: FCIP 0040
Provenance: Milan, Ludovico Cavaleri Collection; Milan, Paolo Clerici di Cavenago Collection (in 1933 and until 1945). Galleria Manzoni, Milan, 23 December 1970
Exibition:
1933, Milano, Castello Sforzesco, n. 55;
2008-2009, Bergamo, s. n.
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Giorgio Nicodemi attributed this unsigned painting to Domenico Induno on the occasion of the exhibition of works by the Induno brothers that he organised in 1933 together with Enrico Somarè at the Sforza Castle in Milan. While the work was then the property of the Marquis Paolo Clerici di Cavenago, the inscription on the back of the canvas refers to its previous owner, the painter Ludovico Cavaleri, one of the brothers’ friends. The right side of the work is unfinished, and the somewhat cursory painting was probably executed some time later, and can be regarded as dating from the last years of the painter’s career.
Waited on by two servants in a richly decorated room with a large landscape painting on the wall, an elegantly dressed lady converses with a friend who has recently given birth. A recurrent theme of genre painting with a whole variety of iconographic variations, the subject of the visit is depicted here in a setting that recalls the fashionable scenes painted by the artist’s brother Gerolamo in accordance with the tastes prevailing on the art market of the time, such as his Dancing Lesson. Subjects of a Neo-Rococo character also appear in other late works like The Letter (1871, private collection) and A Domestic Drama (1873, Desio, Banco di Desio e della Brianza). The latter, which was shown at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, displays a note of social criticism with respect to upper middle-class society in its depiction of failed wedding plans. The only fully completed element of the painting appears to be the seated figure on the left, which is also distinguished by an attitude of compassion captured with great naturalness. This is echoed in the varied expressions of the other characters, which contribute to creating an animated scene.
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Sources:Archivio Storico Intesa Sanpaolo, Patrimonio Cariplo, Opere d’arte. Atti d’acquisto ex Cariplo. Fald. 1/3, pratica no. 879 R/437 |
Bibliography |
Catalogo della mostra retrospettiva dei pittori Domenico e Gerolamo Induno ordinata nel Castello Sforzesco di Milano dalla Galleria dell'Arte e dell'Esame, testo di Enrico Somarè, catalogo della mostra, Milano, Castello Sforzesco, maggio – giugno 1933, Edizioni dell'Esame, Milano, 1933, n. 55, s.p.;
Dipinti di Domenico e Gerolamo Induno ordinati in mostra retrospettiva dalla Galleria dell'Arte e dell'Esame nel Castello Sforzesco di Milano, prefazione di Giorgio Nicodemi, presentazione di Enrico Somarè, Edizioni dell'Esame, Milano, 1933, n. 36, s.p.;
Giorgio Nicodemi, Domenico e Gerolamo Induno, Editore G. G. Görlich, Milano, 1945, ill. n. 45, s.p.;
Sergio Rebora, Domenico Induno, Visita alla puerpuera, in Sergio Rebora, a cura di, Le collezioni d’arte. L’Ottocento, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde, Milano, 1999, n. 128, pp. 214-215, ill. p. 214;
Fernando Noris, a cura di, Ottocento tra realtà e sogno. Il lungo secolo della pittura italiana e lombarda, catalogo della mostra, Bergamo, Spazio Viterbi, 28 novembre 2008 - 22 febbraio 2009, Provincia di Bergamo - Fondazione Cariplo, Bergamo - Milano, 2008, ill. p. 38;
Paola Segramora Rivolta, in Fernando Mazzocca, a cura di, Da Boccioni a Canova. Le collezioni della Fondazione Cariplo e di Intesa Sanpaolo, Skira, Milano, 2011, n. IX.125, p. 226, ill.
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