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

Young Lady or Portrait of Carla Erba (Signorina o Ritratto di fanciulla o Carla Erba)

Year:

1895-1896

Dimensions (cm):

37.5 x 30.5 x 27

Dimensions (inches):

14.76 x 12.01 x 10.63

Medium:

Sculptures

Material:

plaster

Signature:

Signed on the back: Paolo Troubetzkoy; Inscribed on the right: A mio amico carissimo / Felice Cameroni / Paolo Troubetzkoy

Current location:

Verbania Pallanza, Museo del Paesaggio: inv. T n. 294

Description Provenance Exhibitions Bibliography

Carla Erba (Milan 1879-Cortina d’Ampezzo 1939) was the daughter of Luigi Erba, an amateur musician. She married in 1900 with the Duke Giuseppe Visconti di Modrone and had six children, including the famous film director Luchino Visconti. Troubetzkoy also sculpted Carla Erba in 1895, when she was just about sixteen years old, in full length. Of the present plaster another cast in bronze exists in a private collection. The inscription to Felice Cameroni confirms the great friendship and appreciation between Troubetzkoy and Cameroni, as also demonstrated by the portrait Troubetzkoy made for the publicist in 1889.

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

Festa dell'Arte e dei Fiori. Esposizione di Belle Arti, Florence 1896 (December-January) 1896-1897, n. 662;
Il Liberty Italiano e Ticinese, Lugano e Campione d'Italia, 1981, n. 3;
Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania, 1990, n. 37

Festa dell'Arte e dei Fiori. Catalogo Ufficiale dell'Esposizione di Belle Arti, Firenze 1896;
Pica V., Arristi Contemporanei: Paolo Troubetzkoy, in "Emporium", vol. XII, July 1900, pp. 3-19;
Grioni J.S., in Il Liberty Italiano e Ticinese, cat. della Mostra (Lugano, Campione d'Italia), Rome, 1981;
S. Rebora in Paolo Troubetzkoy 1866-1938, exh. cat., Turin, 1990;
Paolo Troubetzkoy, La Collezione del Museo del Paesaggio, Palazzo Viani Dugnani, Verbania, 2017, p. 72