Gaetano Bellei

(Italian, 1857-1922)

Giornata di pioggia (Rainy day)

Footnotes

Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist by the family of the present owner in 1920
Private collection, Italy

Born in Modena in 1857, Gaetano Bellei trained under the portrait and narrative painter Adeodato Malatesta (1806-1891), where he was a contemporary of classical and genre painter Giovanni Muzzioli (1854-1894). At twenty-four he won a scholarship which allowed him to travel to Rome to study. He first exhibited his paintings in Florence, and briefly lived in Camden Square in London, exhibiting one work, Cara Nonna at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1882 (no.699). He returned to his native Modena to teach, where he died in 1922.

Painted in 1919, the present lot is one of the finest examples of the artist's work to appear at auction. Capturing something of the Belle Époque, Bellei painted a number of large canvases which feature elegant women, either set in glamorous interiors, such as In the theatre (Bonhams New York, 21 April 2010, lot 213) and Off to the Masquerade (Bonhams London, 23 June 2015, lot 32), or battered by the elements, such as Gust of wind (Sotheby's New York, 7 May 1998, lot 191) and A windy day (Sotheby's New York, 5 May 2011, lot 21). These magnificent works allow the artist to demonstrate his great skill in depicting cloth and costume.

Bellei also painted domestic interiors showing family groups, much in the mode of another Modena-born painter, Eugenio Zampighi (1859-1944).