Pietro Scoppetta (1863–1920) - Allo specchio

PIETRO SCOPPETTA
(Amalfi, SA 1863 – Naples, 1920)
Allo specchio
Pastel on cardboard, 32.5 x 28 cm
Signed ‘P. SCOPETTA’ bottom left

NOTE: Intermidiart catalog publication. Signed bottom left. Certificate of Legitimate Provenance. Work without a frame:

This fine painting, known by the title Allo specchio, centers on the early 20th-century female figure and was created by the famous Neapolitan painter Pietro Scoppetta (Amalfi, 1863 – Naples, 1920).
Executed with pastel on paper, the work portrays a woman adjusting 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 female figures captured in moments of spontaneous intimacy.
Situated between two centuries, Scoppetta’s figure was animated by personal as well as artistic tendencies that were essentially divergent. The artist was initially heir to poetics guided by a rigorous representation of truth, filtered through the teachings of Gaetano Capone and later Giacomo Di Chirico, while he still frequented the settings of his native Amalfi and its coast.
After completing his military service, it was the great Neapolitan painting school, with its prestigious representatives — among which Edoardo Dalbono stands out — that oriented some of his thematic and stylistic choices.
In Naples, however, a new climate was in the air, eager to break free 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 synthetic, while the palette narrowed to an essential color range.
A natural consequence of what could be defined as a sort of Neapolitan belle époque was the journey to the driving center of these tendencies, 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 swiftly fix in his notebook.
The female figure is the privileged protagonist of Scoppetta’s drawings and canvases, represented both in the spontaneity of an intimate, solitary dimension and in more elaborate outfits, immersed in refined metropolitan settings. The work in question manages to reconcile these two tensions, returning a private moment in the life of an elegant lady of the city bourgeoisie.
The described piece is in good condition of conservation, despite the aging signs visible in the photos, and it bears the artist’s signature at the bottom left.
The painting is sold without a frame, although it is enhanced by a fine wooden frame.

PROVENANCE: Private Collection

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- Unpublished;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 UNPUBLISHED QUADRERIA general catalog of the collection of the cycle “I Miti e il territorio,” Editor Lab_04, Marsala, 2026 (Pdf).

In the case of sale outside Italian territory, the buyer must wait for the export paperwork processing time.