Portrait of the artist's daughter, Giuseppina

Vincenzo Gemito

1919 · Black chalk and graphite · Drawings and Prints

This large, beautifully finished portrait-like study of the artist’s daughter Giuseppina is a late work. Giuseppina was born in 1885 to Gemito and his second wife, Anna Cutolo ("Nannina"), and was thirty-four at the time of this portrait-like study. She was named after Gemito’s adoptive mother, Giuseppina Baratta. Giuseppina Gemito, known by the nickname "Peppinella," modeled frequently for her father. Numerous drawings by Gemito record Giuseppina through all periods of her life, starting with her as an infant nursing at her mother’s breast. Gemito's career transcurred almost entirely in Naples, his birthplace. He achieved international fame after the exhibition of his works in the Salons in Paris in 1876-78. His works as a sculptor and graphic artist, always figurative, reveal a dynamic naturalism and impressionistic spontaneity, often explored in forms as fragment. His drawings possess an extraordinary technical virtuosity and great freshness.

Artist

Vincenzo Gemito

Date

1919

Medium

Black chalk and graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of James David Draper and the Robert Isaacson Collection, 2020