Ettore Tito (1859 - 1941) The Elbow, c. 1910-1915 Oil on canvas 70 x 150 cm Signature: "E. Tito" bottom right Distinctive elements: on the back exhibition label Galleria Pesaro no. 76 Bibliography: "Mostra Individuale del Pittore Ettore Tito", exhibition catalogue, Milan, 1928, no. 76; Stefano Bosi, card in, Enzo Savoia, Stefano Bosi, edited by, "I Maestri del Colore. Arte a Venezia nell'800', exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2017, pp. 144-147, 169; Angelo Enrico, Francesco Luigi Maspes, edited by, 'Ettore Tito. Catalogo ragionato delle opere', Crocetta del Montello, 2020, p. 307, no. 227 Exhibitions: "Mostra Individuale del Pittore Ettore Tito", Galleria Pesaro, Milan, 1929; Milan, Galleria Bottegantica, "I Maestri del Colore. Art in Venice in the 19th century', Galleria Bottegantica, Milan, 2017 Conservation status. Support: 85% (re-covered) Conservation status. Surface: 75% (colour fading and paint restoration) Narrator of Venetian daily life, skilful portraitist, refined painter of ideas, illustrator, creator of robust scenes of rural and maritime work, it is difficult to define Ettore Tito, a multifaceted artist of prodigious talent. The lively Venetian scenes of his early production, including the famous 'Pescheria Vecchia' awarded a prize in Paris in 1891, gave way in the mid 1890s to Symbolist themes, classical images of centaurs, nymphs, Fates, ancient gods, always marked by an extreme vitalism. A painting of bodies in motion that release energy, creating a relationship of panic continuity with nature. The same strength, the same vitalism also characterises the genre scenes (processions, peasants and fishermen at work, moments of Venetian life, bathers in the lagoon) created from the early 20th century onwards, built with a peculiar vision from below upwards through which the figures jostle boldly in the direction of the viewer with their robes moved by the wind. "Together with the search for movement, air triumphs supreme in Tito's paintings," asserted Margherita Sarfatti in 1905 (M. Grassini Sarfatti, "Artisti contemporanei. Ettore Tito", in "Emporium", XXI, 1905, 124, pp. 251-264, p. 259). In Ettore Corazzini's opinion, the 1909 Venice Biennale marked "the artist's second spring" (E. Corazzini, "La seconda primavera di Ettore Tito", in "Vita d'Arte", III, 1909, 16, pp. 208-216). A frisson of life runs through three masterpieces purchased by as many public institutions: the symbolist work 'Le Parche' (Palermo, Galleria d'Arte Moderna) and the genre paintings 'La partenza della pesca' (Venice, Provincial Administration) and the first version of 'La Gomena' (Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna). Two men, a woman, a boy and a horse pull a sailing fishing boat onto the beach, while the sky darkens with clouds and an earthy wind makes their efforts difficult. These are grandiose figures, their muscles tense from fatigue, arranged on a horizontal line that recalls that of the contemporary decorative friezes by Giulio Aristide Sartorio. The figures, especially that of the man on the left, the woman, whose dress is reminiscent of a classical peplos in its drapery, and the horse take on a universal and epic value in the effort made in a quiet and decisive manner. A highly successful work, 'La Gomena' was replicated in the following years in three versions with variants, including the one under examination which, although smaller in size than the prototype, is more detailed in its two lateral extremities. In the first version, only the shoulder and head of the male figure on the right and half of the boat on the left were visible. Teresa Sacchi Lodispoto