Portrait of Madame L Cappiello - Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859-1933)

Vittorio Matteo Corcos (Livorno, October 4, 1859 - Florence, November 8, 1933) "Portrait of Madame L Cappiello" oil on cardboard, 1909 54 x 61.5 cm. Vittorio Matteo Corcos was a painter of Livorno origin, active mainly from the last twenty years of the 19th century. After a period of training, first in Florence and then in Naples, under the direction of Domenico Morelli, he left for Paris in 1880 to perfect his skills and begin his artistic career. There, he was able to come into contact with the Goupil art house to which he was linked for more than a decade: in fact, he signed a fifteen-year contract, from 1881 to 1896. The working relationship with Adolphe Goupil, a far-sighted merchant who built an empire on the art trade, launched it on the European market and decreed its success. In particular, Corcos specialized in portraiture: it was in this genre that he enjoyed great professional success. For his portraits he became one of the emblematic artists of the Belle Époque. The work in question belongs to this production. This is the portrait of Madame Cappiello, whose real name is Suzanne Meyer; the lady was the wife of Leonetto Cappiello, a painter of Livorno origin, like Corcos. This work was painted in 1909 and dedicated to the lady. The portrait, however, differs from his others in pictorial style. If his stroke is usually precise and neat, here he uses faster and more vibrant brushstrokes, like those of his peer and fellow adventurer in Paris under the Maison Goupil Giovanni Boldini. Both, in addition to being professionally respected, were sought after for their mastery of portraying the European aristocracy of the time. In addition to this, on the back of the painting is a small sketch, probably a scene from the intimate life of the person depicted which testifies to the bond between the two painters.