Vittorio Matteo Corcos

Thomas McLean, London
Private Collection, United Kingdom

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in lovely condition. The canvas has an old lining which is presenting the surface well. The paint layer is clean and varnished. A few tiny cracks have been retouched in the right arm and hand of the standing woman and in the bust of the seated woman. In the sky there is a restoration in the lower right and another small group of retouches in the grey cloud in the upper left. It is possible that further cleaning could resolve some of this slight unevenness which has been retouched, but the painting looks well and is in beautiful condition.
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Encouraged to travel by his tutor in Naples, artist Domenico Morelli, Corcos left Florence and moved to Paris in 1880. Once settled, he was promptly invited to sign a fifteen year contract with the prominent art dealer Adolphe Goupil, who also represented his Italian contemporaries Giovanni Boldini and Giuseppe de Nittis, whose studio he would frequently visit. Corcos also befriended Léon Bonnat, another society portraitist in Paris. He quickly established himself as part of elite art circles and gained his reputation as the "peintres des jolies femmes," a moniker given to him by The Times correspondent Henri De Blowitz that followed him for his entire career, and is justified by the present work.

The Neapolitan Beauties depicted here are effortlessly chic as they pose by the seaside, with a spouting Mount Vesuvius adding drama to the horizon. Their exquisite dresses serve as a showcase for Corcos' expert and swift paint handling, and he includes a sophisticated poodle as their companion. Curly-haired poodles, or Barbets, were extremely popular in Europe in the nineteenth century. They were prized as hunters and as intelligent companions with human characteristics. They have been included in works by many artists, from Dürer to Toulouse-Lautrec to Louis de Schryver (see lot 17); in Faust, Goethe has Mephistopheles come back to earth as a black poodle. The poodle shown here is distinguished by her neatly clipped coat and is as stylish and refined as the elegant women who care for her.

By 1887, Corcos had returned to Italy with an established reputation and a Parisian dealer, and he had converted to Catholicism to marry Emma Ciabatti. Through her, the artist came into contact with intellectuals such as Carducci and Gabriele D'Annunzio. Corcos became one of Italy's pre-eminent portrait painters, traveling frequently and painting members of the Italian aristocracy and monarchy, politicians throughout Europe, and contemporary writers and artists.