
Peter Rees
Director, Head of Sales
£25,000 - £35,000
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Provenance
The collection of Cavazzocchi Filo della Torre, Naples.
With Galleria Corona, Naples, 1930.
With Galleria Navarra, Naples, 1969, no. 13.
Anon. sale, Christie's, Rome, 26 November 2002, lot 268.
Private collection, Italy (acquired from the above).
Exhibited
Rome, R. Arciello, Artecatalogo dell'Ottocento. Vesuvio dei pittori napoletani, 1972-1973, vol. II, p. 181.
Vincenzo Irolli, a native of Naples, was a precocious talent from a young age and quickly gained a good reputation in the local artistic community. At the Istituto di Belle Arti di Napoli he studied under Giocchino Toma and Federico Maldarelli, though would soon fall under the influence of Francesco Paolo Michetti's painterly style and the effusive use of colour by Antonio Mancini and Domenico Morelli. In 1879 Irolli presented works at the Esposizione Promotrice in Naples and demonstrated his ability through use of colour and impasto to convey the vibrant nature of Naples and its people. The depiction of Naples, its women, children and market scenes became the genre for which Irolli was and is most associated and it would bring him success across Italy and internationally.
In La Treccia Recisa Irolli captures the moment just after a young girl has cut her hair short, she appears to immediately regret her complicity with the fashion of the time and this drama is rendered with his characteristic lively brushwork and vibrant palette. The small tragedy is a brilliant example of Irolli's talent as a colourist, the vivacity of the oranges and reds of the dress emphasise the sudden and painful nature of the drama, which leaps out of the rich blue of the background. The Japanese designs of the backdrop most likely date this work to the early 1920s when Irolli painted a small number of canvases in an Oriental style, using decorative motifs such as cranes, blossoms and clothed figures in Japanese embroidery and kimono style dresses.