Pietro Scoppetta (1863–1920) - Allo specchio - NO RESERVE

PIETRO SCOPPETTA
(Amalfi, SA 1863 – Naples, 1920)
In front of the mirror
Pastel on cardstock, 32.5 x 28 cm
Signed ‘P. SCOPETTA’ at bottom left

NOTE: Exhibition catalog Intermidiart publication. Signed at bottom left. Certificate of rightful provenance. Work without frame:

This fine painting, known under the title In front of the mirror, centers on the female figure of the early 20th century and was created by the celebrated Neapolitan painter Pietro Scoppetta (Amalfi, 1863 – Naples, 1920).
Executed with the pastel technique on paper, the work portrays a woman preparing her hat in front of a mirror. It is a significant example of Scoppetta’s style, an artist of Amalfi origin active in Naples, known for his depictions of women caught in moments of spontaneous intimacy.
Straddling two centuries, Scoppetta’s figure was animated by tendencies, personal as well as artistic, that were essentially divergent. The artist was initially heir to poetic aims based on a rigorous representation of truth, which reached him filtered through the teachings of Gaetano Capone and later Giacomo Di Chirico, when he still frequented the scenes of his native Amalfi and its coast.
At the end of his military service, it was the great Neapolitan painting school, with its prestigious representatives — among whom Edoardo Dalbono stands out — that guided some of his thematic and stylistic choices.
In Naples, however, a new climate was felt, eager to break away from the heavy legacy of the past: the first Liberty (Art Nouveau) tendencies began to spread, with renewed attention to applied arts and graphics. Scoppetta, a passionate draftsman, was inevitably influenced by this. His brushwork thus became faster and more succinct, while the palette was reduced to an essential chromatic range.
A natural consequence of what can be defined as a sort of Neapolitan Belle Époque was a journey to the driving center of these trends, namely Paris. Following the example of numerous Italian artists — including Carlo Brancaccio, Ulisse Caputo, Lionello Balestrieri, Raffaele Ragione and Vincenzo La Bella — Scoppetta moved to the French capital. From there he continued his travels across Europe, always in search of elegant subjects to quickly fix in his sketchbook.
The privileged protagonist of Scoppetta’s drawings and paintings is the female figure, portrayed both in the spontaneity of an intimate and solitary dimension and in the more studied outfits, immersed in refined metropolitan contexts. The work here discussed manages to reconcile these two tensions, returning a moment of private life of an elegant lady of the city bourgeoisie.
The described work is in good state of preservation, despite signs of aging visible in the photos, and bears the artist’s signature at the bottom left.
The painting is sold without a frame, although it is embellished by a refined wooden frame.

PROVENANCE: Private collection

PUBLICATION:
- Unpublished;
- I MITI E IL TERRITORIO in Sicily with a thousand cultures. UNPUBLISHED QUADRERIA general catalog of the paintings of the cycle “I Miti e il territorio”, Editor Lab_04, Marsala, 2026 (Pdf).

In the case of sale outside of Italian territory, the buyer must await the processing times for export procedures.