 |
| Contessa Carolina Sommaruga Maraini, 1901. |
Vittorio Matteo Corcos (4 October 1859, Livorno – 8 November 1933, Florence), Italian painter, best known for his genre scenes, most often featuring winsome and well-dressed - and frequently partially un-dressed - young women. All pretty and insipid. His other major endeavor, portraits of lavishly gowned ladies, minor nobility to crowned head, show the same saccharine tendencies, but his painterly style was well-suited to his subject's modishness and station. And with the precision of his likenesses, the often very particular pose and expression, quite a lot of the subject's personality finds its way through the satiny gloss.
 |
| Contessa Nerina Pisani Volpi di Misurata, 1906. |
 |
| Anita Vollert de’ Ghislanzoni and Maddalena Parodi Vollert, 1912. |
 |
| Anna Maria Borghese, circa 1885. |
 |
| Lina Cavalieri, 1903. |
 |
| Study for portrait of Empress Auguste Viktoria of Germany, 1905. |
 |
| Yole Biaggini Moschini, 1904. |
 |
| Marie José, Principessa di Piemonte, Crown Princess, later - very briefly - Queen of Italy, 1931. |
 |
| Queen Amélie of Portugal, 1905. |
 |
| Yole Biaggini Moschini, 1901. (Not terribly "silken", but a brilliant portrait.) |
There's a near-photographic quality to his face renderings that has a certain fascination. The portraits lack the bravura of Sargent or Boldini but they do say a lot about how the subjects saw themselves or at least about the public image they wished to project. The details of costume and jewelry are fascinating.
ReplyDelete