artwork image
Image courtesy of the Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Verbania

Portrait of Luigi Manzotti (Ritratto di Luigi Manzotti))

Year:

1897

Dimensions (cm):

57.5 x 47.5 x 38

Dimensions (inches):

22.64 x 18.70 x 14.96

Medium:

Sculptures

Material:

Plaster

Signature:

Signed and dated on the right: Paolo Troubetzkoy / 1897

Current location:

Verbania Pallanza, Museo del Paesaggio: inv. T n. 52

Description Provenance Exhibitions Bibliography

The plaster depicts the choreographer Luigi Manzotti (Milan, 1835-1905), known for his collaboration with the musician Romualdo Marenco and the scenographer Alfredo Edel for the ballet Excelsior (1888). Rebora (2017) affirms that the present plaster is dated 1897 and could be identified with one of the three sculptures sent from Troubetzkoy to the Exhibition in the National Musem of Turin in 1898: three plaster busts, indicated in the catalogue with the general caption Portrait of a Gentleman (n. 197;199;204). Troubetzkoy proposes an oblique pose of the head, avoiding eye contact with the viewer – an idea which he had taken from Giuseppe Grandi. The artist also took inspiration from Grandi’s composition for the shoulders of the subject.

Paul Troubetzkoy (1866-1938), Italy, until 1938;
By descent to the heirs, Rhoda Muriel Marie Somerwell and Luigi Troubetzkoy;
Donated to the Museo del Paesaggio, 1938-1939

Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania, 1990, n. 55

Pica V., Artisti Contemporanei: Paolo Troubetzkoy, in "Emporium", vol. XII, July 1900, p. 11;
Bossaglia R., Castagnoli P., Troubetzkoy L., Paolo Troubetzkoy Scultore, Intra, 1988, p. 176-177;
S. Rebora in Paolo Troubetzkoy 1866-1938, exh. cat., Turin, 1990, pp. 12-122;
Paolo Troubetzkoy, La Collezione del Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugani, Verbania, 2017, p. 90