Antonio Mancini (1852 - 1930) To My Lord, 1908 Oil on canvas 108 x 86 cm Signature: 'To Mancini' on recto Other inscriptions: 'Broome Park' ak recto Provenance: Otto Messinger Collection, Rome; Alberto Fassini Collection, Rome Bibliography: P. D'Achiardi, 'La collection Messinger', Rome, 1910, p. 307, ill. 158; A. Lancellotti, 'La LXXX Esposizione di Belle Arti a Roma', in 'Natura ed Arte', Milan, a. XIX, no. 11, 1 May 1910, p. 727; 'Società degli Amatori e Cultori di Belle Arti in Roma. LXXX Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti', (exhibition catalogue), Rome, 1910, p. 38, no. 250 or 256 ('Ritratto'); A. Lancellotti, in "Il Secolo XX", January 1911, ill. p. 37; S. Bargellini, "Artisti d'oggi: "Antonio Mancini", in "Noi e il mondo", monthly review of "La Tribuna", year VIII, no. 1, 1 January 1918, ill. p. 70; Catálogo del tercer Salón de Otoño Fundado por la Asociación de Pintores y Esclultores, Madrid, October 1922, p. 32, no. 398, ill. table outside text ("Hombre con flores"); Emilio Cecchi, "La collezione d'Arte del Barone Alberto Fassini. Vol. III, Pitture del secolo XIX e del secolo corrente", Milan-Rome, 1931, s.n.p., ill. table LXXIII; A. Lancellotti, "Antonio Mancini" in "Les Hirondelles. Art - Coutumes - Paysages", a. IX, no. 8, August 1931, ill. 164; "Prima Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale sotto gli auspici di S.E. il Capo del Governo", exhibition catalogue, January-June 1931, year IX, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Via Nazionale, Rome, 1931, s.n.p., no. 12 (as a work from 1910); D. Cecchi, "Antonio Mancini", Turin, 1966, p. 231; B. Mantura, in "Antonio Mancini. 1852-1930", exhibition catalogue, Spoleto, Palazzo Racani Arroni, 28 June - 1 September 1991, Milan, Palazzo della Permanente, 16 September - 27 October 1991, edited by B. Mantura, E. Di Majo, Rome, 1991, p. 10, ill. 11; R. Caputo, "La pittura napoletana del II Ottocento", with a preface by F. Mazzocca, Sorrento, 2017, p. 246; C. Virno, "Antonio Mancini. Catalogo ragionato dell'opera', vol. I, "La pittura a olio su tela, tavola, carta e specchio", Rome, 2019, cat. 593, pp. 352 and 354, ill. 593 Exhibitions: Amatori e Cultori, Rome, 1910; Salòn de Otoño, 1931; Prima Quadriennale, Rome, 1931 Conservation status. Support: 90% (reintelo) Conservation status. Surface: 90% The painting - showing Mancini's typical preparatory quadrettatura - dates from 1908, when Mancini, after his return from Dublin, stayed in Broome Park, not far from London, as a guest of Mary and Charles Hunter, at the Hill Hall estate near Epping, and Sir Basil Heneage Dixwell Oxenden (1874-1919). Here he produced three works, known under the titles 'To My Lord' or 'The Greeting', depicting a man in fur offering flowers: interestingly, the sitter is almost the same name as the artist, a certain Domenico Mancini who served as chauffeur and factotum to John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and Mary Hunter (1857-1933). In an undated note on the letterhead of the 'Red Lion Hotel', which may refer to the one in the auction or to another of the three versions of 'To My Lord', Mancini recalls: 'Madam Hunter brought from London so many fake flowers so I made them in the basket that Domenico Mancini shows large for real'. The composition was much loved by Mancini, as evidenced not only by his choice to measure himself in it three times. For one of the two full-length versions (Virno 2019, cat. 591) "the Maestro had an almost jealous predilection. he considered it perhaps the supreme, unsurpassable work. That is why he always kept it in his studio and refused all offers'. The card version was taken by the artist to Rome, to sell it, through the painter Giuseppe Giosi, to the German Baron Otto Messinger, a famous collector and antiquities dealer who immediately afterwards, and until 1911, took the artist on contract, allowing him the coveted economic stability. In a note dated 10 November 1908, addressed to Giosi, Mancini wrote: "Please deliver my painting to Mr. Messinger who [sic] bought it". This is one of the very few paintings by Mancini that, although part of the German baron's collection, was not commissioned by him. In 1929, it passed with other works into the collection of Baron Alberto Fassini, thus participating in two of Mancini's major collections. Fassini exhibited it, together with his other paintings, at the Quadriennale of 1931, consecrating it among the artist's best known works. Mancini's interest in the physiognomy of his naturalised English namesake is testified by three other works (cat. 595-597). The contents of this card are largely due to the research carried out for the catalogue raisonné of the artist by Cinzia Virno (in particular, cards 591-597). We thank Cinzia Virno for confirming the authenticity of the work on a photographic basis (communication of 8 August 2023).