Giacomo Favretto (1849 - 1887) Fantasticando, 1884-1887 Oil on panel 106.5 x 57.5 cm Signature: upper left, 'G. Favretto' Date: top left, '1887' Other inscriptions: top left, dedication 'To that nice / of F. Tabacchi / the friend / G. Favretto 1887' " Other inscriptions: on the back of the plate, collection stamps Filippo Schettini, newspaper article from "Il Mattino. Corriere di Napoli" no. 306 dedicated to General Francesco Tabacchi, inventory 'N° 7' written in pencil Provenance: General Francesco Tabacchi, Modena; Cavalier Giuseppe Badini, Bologna; Fillippo Schettini, Naples; Alfredo Schettini, Naples; private collection, Naples Bibliography: 'Catalogue of the Giuseppe Badini Collection. Arte moderna', sales catalogue, Milan, 1928, no. 549, table XVIII; Guido Perocco, Renzo Trevisan, 'Giacomo Favretto', Turin, 1986, p. 192, no. 196; Renzo Trevisan, ed., 'Giacomo Favretto 1849-1887. L'opera completa", Scorzè-Venezia, 1999, p. 207; Enzo Savoia, Stefano Bosi, ed., "La donna nella pittura italiana dell'800. Dalla Scapigliatura alla Belle Époque", exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2012, p. 20; Stefano Bosi, board in Enzo Savoia, Stefano Bosi, ed. Arte a Venezia nell'800', exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2017, pp. 68-69, 164 Exhibitions: 'Giuseppe Badini Collection. Arte Moderna', Milan, Palazzo Nuova Permanente, 1928; 'La donna nella pittura italiana dell'800. Dalla Scapigliatura alla Belle Époque', Milan, Galleria Bottegantica, 2012; 'I Maestri del Colore. Arte a Venezia nell'800", Milan, Galleria Bottegantica, 2017 Conservation status. Support: 90% Conservation status. Surface: 85% (moderate repainting particularly along the cracks in the board) "He was not only a happy painter, he was also an artist - the artist of colour and light, who knew how to gaily tune together the most disparate and strident colours so as to arouse, along with admiration for the overcome difficulties of the palette, a true aesthetic enjoyment. But on the other hand, it cannot be denied that art was not for him above all colour [...] and the composition itself did not subordinate itself to the stain, which became the life of the painting", is how Pompeo Molmenti ("Venezia. Nuovi studi di storia e d'arte", Florence, 1897, pp. 398-399) remembers Giacomo Favretto ten years after his premature death. A fellow student at the Venice Academy of Guglielmo Ciardi, Fausto Zonaro, Luigi Nono and Alessandro Milesi and assistant to Pompeo Molmenti, in his early production he was influenced by Macchiaioli painting and the Neapolitan lesson. However, the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris was a turning point, which allowed him to approach the painting of Ernest Meissonier and Mariano Fortuny. His bright palette and loose, vibrant brushstrokes, at first used on neo-eighteenth-century subjects, soon turned towards scenes of contemporary life among calle and campielli rendered with lively humour. In 1887, the year of his definitive consecration at the National Art Exhibition in Venice, but also of his early death, Favretto dedicated the work 'Fantasticando' to Garibaldi's General Francesco Tabacchi. The subject of the painting is Angelina, the artist's sister more commonly known by the diminutive name of Zanze, already portrayed in an interior against the background of a plant on a shelf in the painting 'Zanze', presented at the 1884 National Art Exhibition in Turin. A master of colour, Favretto paints the lower part of the painting with a quick and sketchy brushstroke and expertly devotes himself to the face with the yellow handkerchief and the geranium plant in the terracotta vase rendered with the tip of his brush. Below the handkerchief a few unruly locks escape, framing the face absorbed in a romantic reverie. Co-star of the painting is the beautiful still life piece that stands out against the imperfections of the whitewashed wall. The red of the geranium flower forms a chromatic counterpoint to the red shawl, which encloses and gives volume to the face. Teresa Sacchi Lodispoto