(Montegrino Valtravaglia 1804 - Coltaro di Sissa Parmense 1873)
FOUR DRAWINGS OF FEMALE PORTRAITS
A) Female bust portrait and sketch of two figures (recto); landscape with a large tree (verso); black chalk, 123 x 89 mm.
B) Female bust portrait ; black chalk, 127 x 95 mm.
C) Female bust portrait ; black chalk, 126 x 90 mm.
D) Female bust portrait; sketch of a figure (verso); black chalk, 122 x 85 mm.
PROVENANCE: originally part of a group of ten drawings by Piccio in the collection of Giovanni Finazzi, Bergamo.
EXHIBITED: according to the label on the back of the original mount, the group of ten was exhibited at the Mostra Celebrativa del Piccio, Bergamo, Ex Palazzo Municipale - Via T. Tasso, 25 Ottobre - 30 Novembre 1952
A student of Giuseppe Diotti, a rigorous neoclassicist, at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, il Piccio was also influenced by Andrea Appiani. An artist of restless temperament, il Piccio preferred portraiture and landscape painting to historical or sacred subjects, thus breaking away from the academic tradition. He developed a personal style with impressionistic qualities that anticipated the Scapigliatura painters.
