SALVATORE DE GREGORIO Naples 1859 - after 1916 At the theatre Signed S De Gregorio bottom right Oil on panel, 26X35 cm Provenance: Genoa, Sant'Andrea Gallery Genoa, private collection Exhibition: Genoa, Galleria d'Arte Sant'Andrea, Pittori dell'Ottocento, 1957, no. 14 Bibliography: Pittori dell'Ottocento, sale catalogue Galleria d'Arte Sant'Andrea, Genoa 1957, p. 6, 14 A favourite pupil of Stanislao Lista, De Gregorio demonstrated his talent from a young age, distinguishing himself in genre painting and decoration. From 1880, he established a contract with Duhamel, an antiques dealer, for whom he produced numerous watercolours, some of which were later sold in France and attracted the attention of the Prince of Braganza, Filippo di Borbone, who thus commissioned further works from him. As an easel painter, he devoted himself mainly to landscapes but, while touring the city's theatres and cabarets, he made sketches on which he jotted down his impressions. In 1898, he worked on the design for the decoration of a theatre, inaugurated on 7 July 1900, producing the preparatory sketch for the Café chantant. In this sketch, he imagines the hall packed and the show in progress, recreating an atmosphere very similar to that rendered in the painting illustrated in the catalogue, from which his qualities as a colourist and the elegant mastery with which the female figures are rendered emerge.