Antonio Mancini (1852 - 1930) Portrait of Guido Boggiani, 1895 Oil on canvas 100 x 60.5 cm Signature: "AMancini" on recto Date: '95' on front Other inscriptions: 'Portrait of Guido Boggiani 1861-1901 PAINTER AND EXPLORER by Antonio Mancini 1894' on the frame, not autographed Distinctive elements: on the frame, label "N 24T PAINTING A. MANCINI"; another torn label; on the back, 4 unreadable stamps with date "25 FEB 1962". Provenance: Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Bibliography: "2° Biennale, Mostra mercato internazionale dell'antiquariato", Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1961, stand n. 125 (ill.); G. Matteucci, ed., "Panorama pittorico dell'Ottocento italiano", Florence, 1975, n. 28, table 28 (ill.); Aa. Vv., "Catalogo dell'arte italiana dell'Ottocento", no. 14, Milan, 1985, p. 289 (ill.); Maurizio Leigheb, ed., "Guido Boggiani. Painter, explorer, ethnographer. La vita, i viaggi, le opere", Piedmont Region, 1986, pp. 41 (ill.) and 42; Cinzia Virno, ed., "Antonio Mancini. Catalogo ragionato dell'opera", Rome, 2019, vol. 1, cat. 432, pp. 280-281 (ill.) Exhibitions: "2° Biennale, Mostra mercato internazionale dell'antiquariato", Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 16 September - 16 October 1961, stand n. 125; G. Matteucci, ed., "Panorama pittorico dell'Ottocento italiano", Galleria d'Arte Spinetti, 13 September - 10 October 1975, n. 28 Conservation status. Support: 90% Conservation status. Surface: 90% As Cinzia Virno notes in the catalogue raisonné devoted to the artist, the work 'portrays the Lombard painter and explorer Guido Boggiani, Mancini's friend and "factotum", who supported him financially and helped him exhibit his works in northern Italy. Mancini also executed for him the painting known as Pastorello in ciocie in the Frugone Collection in Genoa (cat. 329). In a letter written by Boggiani himself to Mancini from Stresa on 30 June 1884, the latter asked him for a portrait of him 'not in exchange for the money lent ... but for the friendship I have shown towards you by sending you that money, about which you should have no worries'. Boggiani's portrait was made years later, with the model from life. Another letter preserved in the Mancini archive also refers to this portrait. It is written by his sister Emiliana from Sanremo, on 27 March 1903 - when Boggiani had been dead for a year - to an unknown addressee who asked him for information: 'Dear Sir / I have received ... your letter and I am anxious to reply to it at once, telling you that for my part I have never known that the painter Mancini had painted a portrait of my poor brother Guido Boggiani. I cannot therefore tell you where this painting is because I never knew it existed. I immediately sent your letter to my brother Captain Oliviero Boggiani who is garrisoned in Novi Ligure... and perhaps he will be able to inform you better than I can'. The work reappeared on the market in the 1960s and at the international exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence in 1961'. The dating to 1894, like the other indications on the verso of the canvas, does not appear to be autograph (Cinzia Virno's communication of 22 May 2021). Between 1894 and 1895, Boggiani arrived in Rome before leaving for Greece, between 12 July and 16 September 1895, on poet and journalist Edoardo Scarfoglio's yacht Fantasia, together with D'Annunzio and his translator Georges Herélle. The Vocabolario dell'idioma Guanà (Vocabulary of the Guanà idiom) was then published in the Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, (Series V, vol. III), in which Boggiani also reported and corrected vocabulary collected by the explorers who had preceded him. Also in Rome, the contributions Delimitazione dei confini fra il Paraguay e la Bolivia e Gli indiani Cainguà dell'Alto Paranà (Misiones) appeared in the Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana (Rome, year XXIX, vol. XXXII, series III, vol. VIII), as well as his main work, Viaggi di un artista nell'America Meridionale. The Caduvei (Mbayà or Cuaicurù). Roman passages are also testified by at least two of his paintings, Olive Trees at Tivoli and Roman Campagna (Leigheb 1986, cat. 63 and 66). And it was in the Eternal City that Mancini most likely portrayed him. In Asuncion, Paraguay, the main street and the Museo Arqueológico y Etnográfico Guido Boggiani are dedicated to the explorer. We thank Cinzia Virno for her support in cataloguing the work.