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

Spring (Primavera)

Dimensions (cm):

52 x 58 x 35

Dimensions (inches):

20.47 x 22.83 x 13.78

Medium:

Sculptures

Material:

plaster

Signature:

signed: Paolo Troubetzkoy

Current location:

Verbania Pallanza, Museo del Paesaggio: inv. T n. 308

Description Provenance Bibliography

This plaster could be identified as one of the many female busts exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of the Famiglia Artistica in 1894 and at the Permanente exhibition of 1895. At the time, the press did not provide descriptions of the present bust, except for Virgilio Colombo, which describes the bust of the woman as one of Troubetzkoy’s most successful works, able to grasp a feminine spirit. (PVC, “La Lombardia” 22 Dicembre 1894, p. 2). Dated at 1894, the present plaster is coherent with Troubetzkoy’s style of the early years, characterized by a “sprezzatura” in the clothes and hair of the lady, yet very elegant in its facial features. The present bust resembles other artworks from those years, such as Baroness Celestina Strzelecki Barbiera (1894). Sergio Rebora (1990) states that the present bust is not to be considered a portrait in the traditional sense, as the figure doesn’t look in front, but rather at the side. This oblique cut of the sculpture resembles the portraits of Luigi Manzotti (Museo del Paesaggio, inv. T n. 52) and Giovanni Torelli.

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

Paolo Troubetzkoy, La Collezione del Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Verbania, 2017, p. 256