On the Pillow
Pietro Scoppetta, 1918-1919, oil on cardboard, cm 49x35
(1863 – 1920)
A leading figure in Southern Italian artistic culture between the 19th and 20th centuries, Pietro Scoppetta of Amalfi trained at the studio of Gaetano Capone and later with Giacomo Di Chirico. Following his seminal stays in Paris during the 1890s, where he absorbed the innovations of Impressionism, the artist launched a period of significant expressive maturity. In this profile of a young girl, dating to 1918-1919, Scoppetta pursues the "disengaged" character of the Belle Époque, reflecting a sophisticated synthesis of his early realism and a modern, cosmopolitan sensibility: from the vibrant pictorial style of Boldini and the graphic ease of Sargent or Paul-César Helleu.
