NARRATOR:
Pietro Longhi specialized in portraits of fashionable life in 18th-century Venice. Immensely popular in his day, his charming interiors and doll-like figures offered a welcome respite from the weighty allegorical subjects that dominated Venetian art.
Here, we witness an elegant party at a patrician salon, including coffee and artful conversation. The central figure is a wealthy young lady in a flowered dress, surrounded by admiring gentlemen. On the right, one stands in carnival costume, leaning forward as if about to impart some news or gossip. Roses on the table underscore the refined elegance of the scene.
This small canvas beautifully illustrates Longhi’s gift for capturing the leisurely flair and vapidity of upper class Venetian life. Lacking the biting, satirical edge of Hogarth or Goya, he rendered his aristocratic sitters with gentle insight and sympathy. His interiors rarely include doors or windows, suggesting quiet domesticity and shelter from the cares of ordinary life. Notice the warm, pastel colors of this canvas … the luxuriant textures of the costumes with their rich embroidery. Longhi even included his own self-portrait in this painting. He is the artist in the background, chronicling this intimate scene.
An Artist Sketching an Elegant Company ("Il Caffè")
c. 1750-55
Pietro Longhi (Italian, 1702-1781)
On View
This painting illustrates beautifully Longhi's gift for depicting the bourgeoisie doing nothing, but with great style. His editorial comments lacked the bitter, satiric edge of those by Hogarth or Goya. Rather, he adhered to the role of an intimate chronicler who captured with penetration and a subtly ironic viewpoint the low-key, bourgeois character of the eighteenth-century Venetian aristocracy. He created carefully arranged compositions and frequently cast his group portraits around a table scene. Included here is his own self-portrait, appropriately as the artist sketching the activity at hand.
Details
- Artist Name: Pietro Longhi (Italian, 1702-1781)
- Title: An Artist Sketching an Elegant Company ("Il Caffè")
- Date: c. 1750-55
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 24 x 19-7/16 in. (61 x 49.4cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.2012.1.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Gambardi family, Florence (said to have been painted by the artist for the family),
by inheritance to;
Count Giacomo Miari de Cumani, Padua, until ca. 1908[?], to[?];
[(?) Carlo Balboni, Venice and Ferrara, to];
Professor Elia Volpi, Florence and New York (sale, New York, American Art Galleries, 17-19 December 1917, lot 441, to);
E. Segrè, for(?);
Lionello Perera, New York, by inheritance to;
Mrs. Lionello Perera, New York (sale, London, Sotheby’s, 24 June 1964, no. 31, to);
[Julius Weitzner].
[Hallsborough Gallery, London, sold 1969 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation, transferred in 2012 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
by inheritance to;
Count Giacomo Miari de Cumani, Padua, until ca. 1908[?], to[?];
[(?) Carlo Balboni, Venice and Ferrara, to];
Professor Elia Volpi, Florence and New York (sale, New York, American Art Galleries, 17-19 December 1917, lot 441, to);
E. Segrè, for(?);
Lionello Perera, New York, by inheritance to;
Mrs. Lionello Perera, New York (sale, London, Sotheby’s, 24 June 1964, no. 31, to);
[Julius Weitzner].
[Hallsborough Gallery, London, sold 1969 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation, transferred in 2012 to;
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Venetian Painting of the Eighteenth Century
- New York, Knoedler & Company, 1936-04-06 to 1936-04-18
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 626 p. 320
- Pignatti, Terisio, Pietro Longhi: Paintings and Drawings,pl. 187 p. 76
- Rava, Aldo, Pietro Longhi,pl. 31b
- Zeri, Frederico, Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Venetian School, p. 38
- Sloane, Margaret D., Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 52
- Bagemihl, Rolf, Metropolitan Museum Journal,fig. 5 pp. 233-247
- Moschini, V., Pietro Longhi,pl. 157
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 98
- Valcanover, F., Venezia e Europa, p. 362
- McCorquodale, Charles, The Connoisseur,fig. 8
- Pignatti, Terisio, Il Museo Correr di Venezia, Dipinti del XVII e XVIII secolo, p. 178
- Renato Miracco, Italian Treasures in the U.S. An Itinerary of Art,2014, p. #42
- Pignatti, Terisio, Pietro Longhi,pl. 187 p. 89
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