MARCHETTI, LUDOVICO (1853-1909)

"Gabrielle Cot" (c.1891)
After William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)
Oil on canvas on board
60 x 50cm
Signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Marchetti was a prominent Italian Romantic & Genre painter. He trained under Spanish Realist Master, Mariano Fortuny y Marsal who had a studio in Rome during the early 1870’s. By 1878, at the age of 25, Marchetti left for France. Here he continued his studies and began exhibiting at the Paris Salon, as well as exhibition halls in Berlin and Munich. Like many of his contemporaries, Marchetti specialized in historic paintings – scenes from the bygone era. Among his favorite subjects were the cavaliers and troubadours of the 18th century – dressed in there richly colored clothes. Marchetti would have known Bouguereau as they were both in Paris at the same time sharing the same dealer, Adolphe Goupil. The portrait is of Pierre Cot's (another well known artist) daughter and was given as a wedding present. It was the only non-commissioned work Bouguereau ever did and was kept inside the family until 1983. It was only exhibited once to the public at the Paris Salon in 1891, where Marchetti would have seen it as he was a regular Salon exhibitor, unless Bouguereau or Cot gave him a private viewing. The original sold for $AU300k in 2011.