MASSIMO CAMPIGLI | Le Pettinatrici (The Hairdressers)

Carlo Cardazzo, Venice (acquired by 1940)
Galleria del Cavallino, Venice
Acquired from the above October 10, 1949

Venice, XX Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d’Arte, 1936, no. 22
Rome, Galleria di Roma, XLII Mostra della Galleria di Roma con opere della raccolta Carlo Cardazzo, Venezia, 1941, no. 5, illustrated in the catalogue
Venice, Galleria Ongania, Campigli, Cesetti, Marini, 1941, n.n.
Venice, Galleria del Cavallino, 1a Mostra del Cavallino. Campigli, Carrà, Cesetti, Marino, Romanelli, Rosai, Sironi, Tosi, 1942, no. 9
Venice, Galleria del Cavallino, Massimo Campigli. Mostra collettiva con opera di Carrà, Campigli, Casorati, De Pisis ed altri, 1942, no. 27
Amsterdam, Stedeljik Museum, Massimo Campigli, 1946, no. 17
Lucerne, Kunstmuseum Luzern, 40 Jahre italienscher Kunst, Die Emeuerungsbewegungen vom Futurismus bis heute, 1947, n.n.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Twentieth-Century Italian Art from American Collections, 1949, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue
Palm Beach, Florida, Society of the Four Arts, Futurism and Later Italian Art, 1951, n.n.
Milan, Palazzo Reale & Rome, Gallerie Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Arte Italiano del XX Secollo de Collezioni Americana, 1960, no. 55, illustrated in the catalogue

Giuseppe Marchiori, “La Biennale Veneziana,” in Emporium, vol. LXXXIV, Venice, September 1936, illustrated p. 137 
Pierre Courthion, Massimo Campigli, Paris, 1938, illustrated pl. 29
Carlo Cardazzo, Numerio unico del Cavallino, Venice, 1940, illustrated p. 15
Carlo De Roberto, “Artisti contemporanei: Il pittore Massimo Campigli,” in Emporium, vol. XCV, Venice, March 1942, illustrated p. 105 
Raffaelo Franchi, Massimo Campigli, Milan, 1944, illustrated pl. XVIII (dated 1934)
Raffaele Carrieri, Campigli, Venice, 1945, illustrated p. 73
Roberto Salvini, Guida all’Arte Moderna, Florence, 1949, no. 35, illustrated n.p.
Carlo Cardazzo, Campigli, Venice, 1953, illustrated pl. 5 
Roberto Salvini, Guida all’Arte Moderna, Milan, 1956, no. 36, illustrated n.p.
Raffaele Carrieri, “Voleva diventare un grande pittore,” in Colloqui, Milan, January 1957, illustrated pp. 18-19 
Jean Cassou, Campigli, Zurich, 1957, illustrated p. 50 
Agostino Mario Comanducci, Dizionario illustrato dei Pittori, Disegnatori e Incisori Italiani Moderni e Contemporanei, vol. I, Milan, 1962, illustrated p. 323
Franco Russoli, Campigli. Pittore, Milan, 1965, illustrated pl. VII
Raffaele Carrieri, Le immagini di Massimo Campigli, Milan, 1967, illustrated p. 369
Raffaele De Grada, Campigli, Rome, 1969, illustrated p. 65
Agostino Mario Comanducci, Dizionario illustrato dei Pittori, Disengnatori e Incisori Italiani Moderni e Contemporanei, vol. I, Milan, 1970, illustrated p. 518
Cesare Maccari, Campigli, Parma, 1970, illustrated p. 97
Virgilio Guzzi, “Massimo Campigli,” in Levante, September 1971, illustrated p. 32 (dated 1934)
Giancarlo Serafini, ed., Omaggio a Campigli, Rome, 1972, illustrated p. 76
Massimo Carrà, Gli Anni del Ritonro all’Ordine. Fra Classicismo e Arcaismo, Milan, 1975, illustrated p. 305 
Liana Bortolon, Campigli e il suo segreto, Milan, 1992, illustrated p. XIV (dated 1944)
Patrizia Ferraris, “Nemo propheta in patria,” in Padova, 1994, illustrated p. 70
Antonella Fantoni, Il gioco del paradiso. La collezione Cardazzo e gli inizi della Galleriea del Cavallino, Venice, 1996, illustrated p. 57
Eleonora Barbara Nomellini, “Campigli, luna d’inverno e Le lettre de Campigli,” in Cahiers d’Art Italia, May-June 1997, illustrated p. 64
Angelica Cardazzo, ed., Caro Cardazzo, Lettere di artisti, scrittori e critici a Carlo Cardazzo dal 1933 al 1952, Venice, 2008, illustrated p. 68
Nicola Campigli, Eva Weiss & Marcus Weiss, Campigli Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Milan, 2013, no. 36-011, illustrated in color on the cover & p. 484

This work is in very good condition. The canvas has been lined and reinforced with wax. The surface is richly textured. There is some extremely minor horizontal craquelure in the center of the composition. Under UV light, no inpainting is apparent.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

While living in Paris in the 1920s, Campigli encountered the rappel à l’ordre, the return to classicism as a source of inspiration championed by the artistic and literary avant-garde. Pioneered by artists such as Picasso and Le Corbusier, who were disillusioned by the chaos and destruction of World War I, this movement resulted in painterly styles of Neo-Classicism and Purism, drawing on the geometrical harmony of antiquity. With his natural predisposition for order and interest in art historical tradition, Campigli adopted this contemporary current, and crafted it into a highly individual style of his own. Depicting four women, dressed in plain clothes, with folds in their garments resembling columns of classical temples, the present painting is a nostalgic allegory of a simpler, trouble-free past. The heavy, sculptural treatment of the figures, and their voluminous arms and hands, evoke the monumental women Picasso painted in the early 1920s. Incidentally, Picasso also explored the subject of hairdressers during his Blue Period. Discussing the influence of avant-garde movements that surrounded Campigli during his years in Paris, Franco Basile wrote: "Living in Paris at that time meant being set alongside the most profound and radical cultural changes of the age, and therefore being confronted and compared with artistic innovation of all kinds. From cubist transformations to Orphic passion, from purist ideals to constructions like tiny segments of light, as seen in the laminated arrangements of Seurat or Signac. It was an intense environment, in which one was expected to form one’s own style within the most turbulent of European inspiration. Over the years Campigli had perfected his style, using an original technique, although derived from certain models which stood out against the panorama of the international avant-garde" (Franco Basile, "Campigli. Prisoner of Past Lives," in Campigli (exhibition catalogue), Galleria Marescalchi, Bologna, 1992, p. 34).

Shortly after its execution and public debut at the Venice Biennale in 1936, this work made its way into the collection of Carlo Cardazzo, an Italian collector, art dealer and book editor who was deeply enmeshed in European intellectual circles of the day. Cardazzo enjoyed a particularly close intellectual relationship with Peggy Guggenheim and was a tireless advocate on the international stage for Italian Modern artists such as Campigli. During the painting's life in the Rockefeller Collection, it was installed prominently in Happy's bedroom.