Pietro Scoppetta (1863-1920) - Studio di figura

Pietro Scoppetta (Amalfi, February 15, 1863 – Naples, February 10, 1920), study of figure, watercolour on paper, the only work measures 29x24 cm and is datable to the Paris period. Good condition, a 2 cm tear visible in the left-central area from a photo, which does not affect the quality and enjoyment of the work. In the frame: object in good condition with signs of aging, except for an abrasion to the gilding on the left side (as in the photo).

Pietro Scoppetta, who initially devoted himself to architectural studies, abandoned them to train as an artist under the guidance of Giacomo Di Chirico. Residing in Naples from 1891, he had the opportunity to live in a climate of strong cultural movement, coinciding with the changing urban shape following the controversial Plan of Reorganization, promoted by the House of Savoy. On one hand, new residential districts were created, and on the other, major public works with great impact were built, such as the Galleria Umberto I and the Palazzo della Borsa.

In this context, Pietro Scoppetta moved with dexterity, proving great talent especially in the representation of the native Amalfi coast and the Valley of the Mills. His works participated in several exhibitions of the Società Promotrice di Napoli.

The city’s activity was also expressed in the birth of elegant cultural gathering spots, such as the café-chantant Salone Margherita and the Caffè Gambrinus, which soon became focal points of Neapolitan Belle Époque. It was precisely Gambrinus that provided him with an important opportunity to show his abilities, when in the period 1889-1890 he was asked to fresco its vaults with other top painters of the Neapolitan scene of the time (Luca Postiglione, Vincenzo Volpe, Edoardo Matania, Attilio Pratella, Giuseppe Alberto Cocco, Giuseppe Casciaro, Giuseppe Chiarolanza, Gaetano Esposito, Vincenzo Migliaro, Vincenzo Irolli and Vincenzo Caprile).

Like other preceding and contemporary artists who, alongside their main painting activity, pursued an alternative profession, he worked as an illustrator for the magazines La Cronaca Partenopea, La Tavola Rotonda and Illustrzione Italiana, under the auspices of the Treves publishing house.

Despite commercial and critical success, which earned him admirers such as King Umberto I and the Prince of Sirignano, Scoppetta decided to leave Italy for abroad, and he stayed for a long time in London and Paris.

In the French capital, where he lived between 1897 and 1903, he joined the numerous group of Neapolitan painters attracted by the bourgeois suggestions of the Belle Époque, among them Lionello Balestrieri, Arnaldo De Lisio, Ulisse Caputo, Raffaele Ragione and Vincenzo La Bella, and he aligned with the line of Italian philoe impressionist artists, of which great precursor was Giuseppe De Nittis.

From the French experience he drew important elements of Impressionism, which he fused and blended into his painting technique with the bright colors of the Neapolitan school.

The Paris period also saw a clear change in the subjects of his paintings. He abandoned, indeed, the landscape representations that had characterized his previous career, and turned to the depiction of bourgeois life, in which he identified elements of optimism and of tension toward the future that best suited his temperament.

After 1910 he left Paris for Rome, where he frequented for a long time the home of his friend Pietro Carrara and his wife, the Countess Maria Valdambrini.

At his death, the Venice Biennale of 1920 dedicated a personal room to him where thirty-five paintings were exhibited.