Federico Zandomeneghi

Durand-Ruel, Paris (acquired directly from the artist on February 20, 1901 as deposit no. 10020 and entered into stock on June 11, 1901, no. 6438)
Durand-Ruel, New York (transferred from the above and entered into stock as no. 2598)
J. H. Wade (acquired from the above on December 17, 1901)
Private Collector, United States (in circa 1960, possibly acquired in an estate sale)
Private Collector, Ohio (acquired from the above)
Thence by descent to the present owner

 

The paper has been stretched around a stiff support board (probably original), possibly laid down along edges; several small pinholes at each corner and top edge. Colors are bright and fresh.
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The earliest paintings by the Venetian artist, Federico Zandomeneghi reveal the strong influence of the Italian group of plein-air painters known as the Macchiaioli.  In the 1860s, Zandomeneghi had worked alongside the major members of the movement in Florence, where his focus was on landscapes and scenes of everyday life.  In June 1874, Zandomeneghi left Italy for Paris, where he was introduced to the artistic movement that had at its core the same philosophy as the Macchiaioli – French Impressionism. His Macchiaioli training had been the preparation for a new style of painting that would characterize the rest of his career. Zandomeneghi was never to return to Italy.

One can only imagine the excitement and anticipation for an artist like Zandomeneghi, whose artistic tendencies already bordered on the avant-garde, when he arrived in Paris that spring.  The First Impressionist Exhibition, as it soon would be named, had just closed.  Over the next decade, "Zandò" (as he was known by his fellow French artists) would be befriended and championed by Edgar Degas, who invited him to participate in what would be the landmark Impressionist exhibitions of 1879, 1880, 1881 and 1886.  It was also Degas who introduced Zandò to the influential art dealer, Durand-Ruel; this liaison resulted in three one-man shows of the artist's work in 1893, 1897 an 1903.  Durand-Ruel would also be responsible for the introduction of Zandomeneghi's work to America.

At the outset, Zandomeneghi's choice of subject matter was aesthetically similar to that of his Macchiaioli days; he continued to favor genre scenes, especially those which depicted women in interior settings.  However, as he became more of a full-fledged Impressionist, the influence of Degas, as well as artists such as Renoir, Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, started to become evident in his expanded repertoire of themes.  Young women bathing or tending to their toilette, reading letters, sewing or taking tea, as well as charming scenes of children, began to appear frequently in his paintings. Despite the often close proximity of an artistic giant, like Degas, Zandomeneghi was still able to maintain his unique style.  In April 1880, his submissions to the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition met with critical success.  Joris-Karl Huysmans singled out his painting of a mother and daughter as one of the most impressive paintings in the show (Charles Moffett, The New Painting, Impressionism 1874-1886, exh. cat., San Francisco, 1986, p. 307).

Lost for more than a century and previously unrecorded, Young Girl Playing with a Doll was recently discovered in an American collection.  When compared with the corpus of Zandomeneghi's known work (see Camilla Testi, Maria Grazia Piceni, Enrico Piceni and Roberto Capitani, Federico Zandomeneghi, Catalogo generale, Milan, 2006, pp. 189-396), this pastel stands out as one of the artist's most successful achievements.  This is expressed,  not only in the detailed depiction of the scene and its charming subject, but also in his mastery of the pastel crayon, a medium that he began to use in the early 1890s, and at which he excelled.  A review of Zandò's first Durand-Ruel showing in New York in January 1901 commented on his pastels: "Especially interesting are the pastels which the artist has done some of his most careful work and got some of his best results.  In the use of his colors in the pastels he is as lavish as he is studious, with results of a fullness and body which works in pastel do not always have" (The New York Sun, January 11, 1901).

Young Girl playing with a Doll is drawn in rich colored chalks, using a palette that ranges from several shades of blue to lime greens, mustard yellows, oranges and pinks.  The rich build up of the medium results in a tactile, almost velvet, surface, which creates a three dimensional quality.  The cropped composition, which is cleverly duplicated in the two sets of chairs – the "grown up" chair in the upper left corner and the doll chairs along the lower edge – was a feature also found in works by Degas and shows the influence of Japanese prints and photography on these artists. 

Two original labels from Durand-Ruel appear on the reverse (fig. 1).  As indicated in the provenance, Young Girl playing with a Doll left France and found a new home in America within six months.