Gaspare Gambi – The Unknown Woman Of The Seine – Signed Charcoal Drawing, 1907

Rare charcoal drawing on paper, signed and dated 1907 by Gaspare Gambi (Ravenna, 1889 – 1968), depicting L’Inconnue de la Seine, one of the most iconic and mysterious figures of late 19th-century European artistic imagination.

The “Unknown Woman of the Seine” was a young girl found drowned in the River Seine in Paris in the 1880s. Her peaceful, faintly smiling face was cast into a death mask by a pathologist. The serene expression and haunting beauty turned the mask into a romantic and symbolist icon, inspiring artists and writers including Rilke, Nabokov, and Camus. It would later become the model for the CPR mannequin “Resusci Anne”.

Drawn when Gambi was only 18, this academic rendering captures the quiet strength and mystique of the subject through exquisite line work and soft chiaroscuro.

Signed lower right. A rare and poetic work for collectors of academic and symbolic art.

Artist's Biography

Gaspare Gambi (Ravenna, July 26, 1889 – Ravenna, 1968) was an Italian draftsman, engraver, and art teacher. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna and later at the Scuola d’Arte Applicata all’Industria in Florence, where he qualified to teach drawing in secondary schools.

His passion for engraving began in the studio of painter and printmaker Vittorio Guaccimanni. Gambi was especially devoted to depicting the monumental heritage of Ravenna and participated in many national and international exhibitions, including the II Quadriennale in Rome (1935), the XXI Venice Biennale (1938), and the Landscape Exhibition in Bologna (1934). His work is noted for its academic rigor and deep reverence for the masters of the Renaissance.