Federico Zandomeneghi

Durand-Ruel & Cie, Paris (no. A451 & 18632; acquired from the artist on 30 November 1900); thence by descent to the present owners

Enrico Piceni, Zandomeneghi, Milan, 1967, no. 126, catalogued & illustrated
Enrico Piceni, Zandomeneghi, Milan, 1991, no. 126, catalogued & illustrated
Fondazione Enrico Piceni, Federico Zandomeneghi catalogo generale, Milan, 2006, p. 308, no. 499, catalogued & illustrated

Pastel on paper laid on board. The work is in excellent original condition and ready to hang. Presented glazed in a gilt frame. Colours are somewhat less yellow than in the catalogue illustration.
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Zandomeneghi is in a sense the 'forgotten Impressionist', having exhibited alongside Monet and Renoir at not fewer than four of the Impressionist group exhibitions in the 1880s. Born in Venice in 1841, he moved to Florence in 1862 and joined the Macchiaioli group with other notable Italian painters including Silvestro Lega and Giovanni Boldini (lot 7). Encouraged by Diego Martelli, the art critic who championed the Macchiaioli, Zandomeneghi travelled to Paris in 1874 to visit the Salon. The trip proved to be life changing: what was meant to be a brief sojourn turned into a 43 year stay, until the artist’s death. As Georges Rivière recalled in his memoir Renoir et ses amis, Zandò (as he came to be known by friends) was the most vocal of his circle at their evening meetings, and certainly his compositions and palette were as radical as those of the other 'New Painters'.

Capturing a moment at an elegant night at the theatre, the present work has close affinities with works by Degas (fig. 1). It was probably from his friend that Zandomeneghi developed a love for the use of pastels and modern compositional choices of women and girls observed unawares from behind or in intimate surroundings. Appreciating the artist’s talent, dealer Paul Durand Ruel bought the exclusivity to Zandomeneghi’s works, allowing his protégé to paint freely without financial constraint and to develop his own aesthetic. 'In art there is but one way, that which I chose: beside this, there is no salvation.' (Enrico Piceni, Zandomeneghi, Milan, 1933, p. 26).