Mes Deux Petits Amis
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Research by Jeremy Stirrup
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oAcc No 205
Artist Andrea Landini
Artist dates 1847-1912
Medium oil on canvas
Size 44.5 x 36.8 cm (17.5 x 14.5 in)
Date painted unknown
Inscr: signed (L.R.)
Donor Dorothy Ward Mosedale
St Andrews Road South, Lytham St Annes
in memory of her parents, Ward and Elizabeth Mosedale
Date donated 1 December 1970
See L'Impatient also by Andrea Landini
Artist Andrea Landini
Artist dates 1847-1912
Medium oil on canvas
Size 44.5 x 36.8 cm (17.5 x 14.5 in)
Date painted unknown
Inscr: signed (L.R.)
Donor Dorothy Ward Mosedale
St Andrews Road South, Lytham St Annes
in memory of her parents, Ward and Elizabeth Mosedale
Date donated 1 December 1970
See L'Impatient also by Andrea Landini
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ARTIST
The following is copied from Haynes Fine Art of Broadway, New York. 'Andrea Landini was a painter of genre, portraits and still life, having been born on 10 December 1847. He studied at the Academy in Florence under Professor Antonio Ciseri, a Swiss born painter of historical genre and portraits, and Riccardo Pasquini, a portrait and figure painter who exhibited in Turin and Milan. Landini concentrated on portrait painting, gaining a considerable reputation and numerous commissions amongst Florentine society, being noted for his detail, breadth and subtlety of colouring. Aside from his portraiture, Landini specialised in elegant genre works, titles include Seduction and The Return. In search of more lucrative commissions, Landini worked in Paris and Rome adopting the specific genre of cardinal painting, a genre that he came to dominate in Rome, together with Georges Croegaert, François Brunery, Jean George Vibert and José Frappa in Paris. It was a genre that was of widespread appeal with its humorous mockery of the lavish and luxurious lifestyle popularly considered to be led by the Catholic Church and the whiff of hypocrisy exposed in paintings of cardinals studying licentious material concealed within a serious tome or surreptitiously imbibing strong liquor. The commercial success of such paintings was due in no small part to the economic prosperity, on a previously unknown scale, seen in the last decades of the 19th century in both Europe and the United States. The burgeoning middle class, the rise of mammon, and a lessening in regard for the church contributed to this surge in popularity. Landini’s highly finished technique lent itself to the portrayal of these lavish scenes with the ornate furnishings of tapestries, ormolu and marquetry furniture, glass, silverware, the lacework of tablecloths and the rich hues of the cardinals’ costumes; in these and more intimate works, his talent for portraiture is evident. Landini worked and exhibited in Florence, Paris and Rome, his last exhibit being at the Société des Artistes Français in Paris in 1911. PAINTING The painting was bequeathed as one of a pair by the same artist. This oil painting depicts an elegantly dressed gentleman, in powdered wig and 18th/19th century attire, seated on a Louis-style embroidered settee with a small terrier and a cat on either side of him, hence the title Mes Deux Petits Amis. The setting is a richly gilded room with a highly decorated ormolu circular table and beautiful polished wooden floor. At this point the names of the sitter or the venue are unknown. However, research on the ASKART website to obtain some indication of other works by the same artist and details of auction results has been most intriguing. There are a considerable number of the artist’s works which have been offered for sale at auction, some fetching high values. Many of Landini’s paintings feature cardinals in their red attire but in informal and non-religious settings. In the course of reviewing the paintings previously offered for sale, another painting has been identified featuring a cardinal with a dog and cat seated on the same settee in the same room setting. The highly decorated table has the same objects on it and the wall hangings, curtaining and screen are the same. It is as though a different sitter had simply been substituted leaving everything else the same. The work is of very fine quality and great detail. The shallow plane in this charming portrait of the very elegantly dressed gentleman, obviously enjoying his pets, is produced by the artist stopping the eye immediately behind the subject with a highly decorated screen, wallpaper and curtain.
The composition of the painting is perfectly balanced with the figure placed centrally, full frontal on a solid triangular base formed from the top of his head, down the slope of his shoulders to the base of the settee on which he is sitting, the sides of the triangle paralleled by the lines of the backs of the dog and the cat. He is framed by an intricately painted table, walls, drapes, screen and floor in a linear style of brushwork, the artist using perfect perspective to fix him in the centre of the space. Activity is suggested in the scene by the dynamic lines produced by the angle of the subject’s head and right arm and the dynamic lines of the backs of the two pets as they jump up to be toyed with. The gentleman is very much the focal point of the work, as, exaggerated by his crimson outfit, he stands out from the background of muted greens and golds. His cream shirt and waistcoat add colour to his face, as do the frills at his wrists, enhancing the flesh tones of the skin. The light entering the picture from the left producing shadow suggests sunshine, lending the whole scene a light airiness and feeling of wellbeing. |
