An exhibition at the Novara Castle on Les Italiens de Paris, from Boldini to De Nittis to Corcos

The Castle of Novara welcomes in its eight rooms the exhibition Boldini, De Nittis et les Italiens de Paris, curated by Elisabetta Chiodini and organized by METS Percorsi d’Arte. On view from November 4, 2023 to April 7, 2024, the exhibition is dedicated to the celebrated Italian artists active in late 19th- and early 20th-century Paris, better known as Les Italiens de Paris, among them Giovanni Boldini and Giuseppe de Nittis.

The exhibition includes ninety works through which it is intended to ideally take visitors to the Paris of that era, between ateliers and exhibitions in the city that since the early 1920s had attracted many Italian artists eager to engage with the figurative culture beyond the Alps and to expand their market across the border. The Exposition universelle of 1867, the first structured entirely in pavilions, confirmed Paris, paraphrasing Walter Benj amin, as the capital of luxury and fashion, of progress and civilization. It would be from the 1960s that enterprising contemporary art dealers, French, British, German, and Dutch, would compete to secure the works of promising young artists, often succeeding in convincing them to enter into “exclusive” contracts, becoming their direct intermediaries with buyers and their aesthetic taste. Prominent dealers included Adolphe Goupil, Friedrich Reitlinger, Thomas and William Agnew, and Algernon Moses Marsden.

The first two rooms house works by artists who worked successfully for the international market and also influenced the Italian market. These include A Market in Constantinople (1874) by Alberto Pasini (1826 - 1899); La Maddalena (1875) by Domenico Morelli (1823 - 1901); Return from the Market (1877) by Alceste Campriani (1848 - 1933); Procession in Florence (1878) by Telemaco Signorini, a work hitherto known as Procession in Settignano and ascribed to the 1980s, and which, thanks to the research carried out for this exhibition, it has been possible to correctly relocate in the corpus of the Tuscan painter’s works. In addition, two masterpieces by Francesco Paolo Michetti (1851 - 1929), Processione del Corpus Domini a Chieti (1877) and La mattinata (1878), documenting Abruzzo’s religious festivities and folklore.

The second section is devoted to Giovanni Boldini and Giuseppe de Nittis. The two rooms house some of the two painters’ most successful works, oil paintings and pastels that illustrate the evolution of their poetics and language from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. Boldini’s works will include a series of paintings dedicated to Berthe, the painter’s model and lover for about ten years, such as Berthe going out for a walk (1874), Berthe reading the dedication on a fan (1878); a figure, that of the young and blond Berthe, who will be replaced in both roles by the dark-haired and sensual Gabrielle de Rasty, wife of Count Constantin de Rasty, with whom Boldini will have an intimate love affair until the late 1990s. Also on view will be Gabrielle de Rasty on the sofa, a large canvas painted between 1878 - 1879. Also by Boldini is the celebrated Amazon (ca. 1879), a portrait of actress Alice Regnault on horseback, from the collections of the GAM in Milan, and again Fanciulla con gatto nero (1885).

Among the many works by Giuseppe de Nittis on display is The Descent from Vesuvius (1872), a painting exhibited at the 1873 Salon along with The Craters of Vesuvius before the 1872 eruption; and again, On the Banks of the Seine and Dans les blé, both painted in 1873, the latter work exhibited at the 1874 Salon despite having already entered the Oppenheim collection. The precious panel has been requested for a major exhibition that will take place in March 2024 at the Musée d’Orsay, so it will leave the rooms of the Château before the conclusion of the exhibition, but it will remain present in a cloned, very high-definition version reproduced in full size. Also on display will be the very famous Al Bois de Boulogne (1873), from the collections of the Enrico Piceni Foundation, Leontine in a dinghy (1874) and two large pastels from life, In visita (1881) and Fiori d’autunno (1884), among the last works executed by De Nittis who died suddenly in August 1884 at only thirty-eight years old.

The third section, on the other hand, will be dedicated to Antonio Mancini and will feature some of his masterpieces that he executed between Naples and Paris from 1872 to 1878. Nine paintings including Scolaro con libri (1872), La lettura (1873), Bambina con fazzoletto giallo (1875), Il suonatore di violino (1877) and Scugnizzo con chitarra (1877). The fourth section will illustrate the evolution of Federico Zandomenghi’s (1841 - 1917) painting from the mid-1870s to the early 20th century. On display will be the Portrait of Diego Martelli (1879) presented by Zandomeneghi at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in 1879, in the Uffizi Gallery Collection, a work inspired by the Paris sojourn of his friend and critic Diego Martelli. Also on display will be Le Moulin de la Galette (1878), from the Collection of the Fondazione Enrico Piceni; Mother and Daughter (1879), a masterpiece in the artist’s production; The Cellist (c. 1882); and the pastel Coppia al Caffè (1885 - 86), from the Collection of the Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti. Also, works made in the following decades, those of Zandomeneghi’s great success, such as Colloquio al tavolino (circa 1895) and A teatro (1895 - 1900).

The fifth section will compare some urban views of Paris and London. These will include Boldini’s famous Place Clichy (1874) and the monumental Westminster (1878), a canvas executed by De Nittis for the banker Kaye Knowles (which will also leave the exhibition before the end since it is expected at the Palazzo Reale in Milan for the major monograph on Giuseppe de Nittis. The section will close with Zandomeneghi’s Place d’Anvers in Paris (1880), a painting universally recognized as one of the artist’s undisputed masterpieces, now owned by the Ricci Oddi Gallery in Piacenza.

The exhibition continues by hosting in the castle’s small “cell” room a selection of nudes and female subjects caught in intimacy, deeply reflecting the character, different sensibilities and different approaches of the respective artists to the subject.

The seventh section will be devoted to Leghorn painter Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859 - 1933), who arrived in Paris when he was just 21 in 1880. On display will be some works from his brief but crucial stay in Paris, such as The Butterfly (1881); The Englishwoman (1882), Girl by the Lake (1884) and the celebrated The Governesses at the Elysian Fields (1892) from the collections of Palazzo Foresti in Carpi. The last section will be devoted to the worldly portraits executed by Giovanni Boldini and Vittorio Matteo Corcos; a much-loved type of portrait that would make the painters highly sought after among their contemporaries and as famous as the highest personalities stopped on canvas by their extraordinary brushes. On display are some of the absolute masterpieces, oils and pastels, by the Ferrara master, and among Corcos’ works are the portrait of soprano Lina Cavalieri (1902) and the previously unpublished Portrait of Lia Silvia Goldmann Clerici (1912 - 1915).

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalog published by METS Percorsi d’arte with essays by Elisabetta Chiodini and Paul Nicholls, and entries by Silvestra Bietoletti, Silvia Capponi, Elisabetta Chiodini, Omar Cucciniello, Elena Lissoni, Elena Marconi, Giulia Matta, Camilla Testi, and Isabella Valente.

The exhibition is co-organized with the City of Novara and Novara Castle Foundation, with the patronage and contribution of the Piedmont Region, the patronage of the European Commission and the Province of Novara, and is made possible thanks to the support of Banco BPM (Main sponsor), Esseco s.r.l., De Agostini Editore S.p.A., Comoli Ferrari & C. S.p.A., Mirato S.p.A., Fondazione CRT. It also has the collaboration of Ad Artem, Ente Turismo Terre dell’Alto Piemonte, Big/Ciaccio Arte, and the support of Enrico Gallerie d’Arte and Gallerie Maspes Milano.

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Presenting the ticket to the monographic exhibition on Giuseppe De Nittis at Palazzo Reale in Milan entitles you to reduced admission to the exhibition Boldini, De Nittis et Les Italiens de Paris at Castello di Novara, and vice versa. Presenting a ticket to the San Gaudenzio Dome in Novara entitles you to reduced admission to the Boldini, De Nittis et Les Italiens de Paris exhibition at the Novara Castle, and vice versa.

An exhibition at the Novara Castle on Les Italiens de Paris, from Boldini to De Nittis to Corcos

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