Portrait of the Bertolini Son

Currently not on view

Portrait of the Bertolini Son

1914

Vincenzo Gemito (Italian, 1852–1929)

Gemito, an orphaned street child from Naples, became the most important Italian sculptor of the late nineteenth century and is increasingly regarded as one of the period's great draughtsmen. He made two large-scale pendant portraits of a brother and a sister for the Bertolini family, who owned the grandest hotel in Naples, Bertolini's Palace Hotel, at the time the drawings were done. Each of these portraits is odd in its own way; here, the boy's rifle is a strange combination with his formal velvet suit. According to an undocumented account, the boy committed suicide a few years after the portraits were done.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of the Bertolini Son

Date:

1914

Artist:

Vincenzo Gemito (Italian, 1852–1929)

Medium:

Graphite and black crayon, on beige wove paper, mounted down

Dimensions:

Sheet: 55 3/16 × 31 7/16 inches (140.2 × 79.8 cm) Framed: 60 × 36 3/4 × 1 1/2 inches (152.4 × 93.3 × 3.8 cm)

Classification:

Drawings

Credit Line:

125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with the Lola Downin Peck Fund, the Alice Newton Osborn Fund, and with funds contributed by Marilyn L. Steinbright and the J. J. Medveckis Foundation, 1999

Accession Number:

1999-4-2

Geography:

Made in Italy, Europe

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Currently not on view