Vincenzo Gemito

The artist’s daughter, Giuseppina Gemito;
Mario and Pico Cellini, Rome;
Private Collection, Florence

The grand scale of this highly impressive sheet, executed by the Neapolitan sculptor and draughtsman Vincenzo Gemito in a combination of black and white chalk, belies its deeply intimate subject matter.  Although Gemito is most widely recognised as a draughtsman for the numerous self portraits that he executed throughout his lifetime, he is also known to have focused many of his artistic energies on his family, creating a number of portraits of his wife, Anna Cutolo, as well as their daughter Giuseppina.  The present drawing, which manages, in the most moving fashion, to simultaneously depict both the contentedness of youth and the vulnerability of a young child, is all the more emotive given Gemito's own abandonment by his parents shortly after his birth in 1852.  Though the inscription on the verso of the sheet acknowledges that the drawing once belonged to the artist's daughter Giuseppina, what is less clear cut is the identity of the young child.  It does however seem likely that a scene of such intimacy could only be achieved by the artist whilst portraying a close family member.  One can therefore safely assume that the present work must portray either his own daughter, Giuseppina, or one of his four grandchildren: Bice, Annita, Carlotta or Alessandro, all of whom Gemito was known to have drawn on a regular basis.