Through the 1860s, the Florentine critic Diego Martelli had championed the Italian group of plein-air painters known as the Macchiaioli, who shared the same principles as the French Impressionists and influenced Federico Zandomeneghi’s early landscapes and genre scenes. Fittingly, it was likely Martelli who prompted his friend Zandomeneghi’s trip from his native Venice to Paris in 1874, after enthusiastically reporting on that year’s inaugural Impressionist exhibition. He introduced the artist to Edgar Degas, who proved to be particularly inspiring to 'Zandò' (as he came to be known by friends), inviting the Italian to exhibit at the fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth Impressionist exhibitions of 1879, 1880, 1881, and 1886 (Ann Dumas, Degas and the Italians in Paris, exh. cat., Royal Scottish Academy, Glasgow, 2004, pp. 19-20).

In 1895, the date of this painting, Federico Zandomeneghi had just signed a contract with the Parisian dealer Durand-Ruel, thus formally qualifying his own adhesion to the group of Impressionists that the dealer was promoting successfully in Europe and in the United States. His characteristic style found its expression in the strong colors typical of artists of the Venetian school, from Titian to Favretto. But his association with artists like Renoir, and especially his close friend Degas, made his choice of subject and interpretation more modern and contemporary in approach, with the emphasis on air and light penetrating the whole composition.

The girl on the left is almost certainly Hélène, whom Zandomeneghi portrayed in another work of 1895 (La piccola Hélène, Piceni, 1967, n. 213), and the other girl is possibly identifiable in another small painting of 1896 (Piceni, 1967, n. 176), in which the sitter sports a similar colored silk scarf.

The two girls seem to be caught in a casual snapshot, as they indulge in a moment of intimate complicity, underlined by their merging profiles. The motif may have been influenced by Zandò’s contemporaries and fellow Impressionist exhibitors Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, another foreign artist in Paris who famously shared an association with Degas. Yet, while Zandò’s working habits and compositional choices linked him to the Impressionists, works like Les deux soeurs are specific to him and his Italian heritage. His compositions earned him the additional nickname of 'Le vénitien', stemming from his luminous yet subtle use of color, which recalls the work of the Macchiaioli

Les deux soeurs has remained largely unknown to the experts and public at large until the present day. It was purchased by Durand-Ruel directly from the artist and sent to its New York dealership in order to be placed in an American collection, possibly that of D.S. Miller. A label on the reverse alludes to its ownership by Edgar Degas, a fact that has not been substantiated at the present moment. The thread of its known ownership is interrupted until the early 1950s, when the painting is acquired into a private California collection, and then bequeathed to the present owner.

We are grateful to Sig. Giuliano Matteucci and Dott.ssa Camilla Testi for kindly confirming the authenticity of this work. A certificate of authenticity N. 423176 issued by the Archivi Boldini-De Nittis-Zandomeneghi, dated 29 April, 2021, will accompany this work.