Tito Conti (florence 1842 - 1924), “the Pearl Necklace”

Tito Conti (Florence 1842 - 1924), “The Pearl Necklace”, circa 1880.

Oil on canvas, cm. 105.5 x 83

Signed “Tito Conti” top left. Contemporary frame.

The young woman in the canvas, portrayed in three-quarters, wears clothes inspired by Roman clothing; a silver shield-shaped pin, made in the late antique manner, ties the two edges of the stole on the shoulder. On the left and on the right arm rests the palla, a cloak typically worn by matrons, in this case made of thick silk and with a striped pattern. We can also find the presence of this fabric, probably a stage costume that the painter had in his atelier, in other works such as An Italian Beauty, Portrait of a Young Italian Woman and the exotic Odalisque.

The blue of the stripes creates a harmonious contrast with the yellow undertone of the entire composition as the two colors are diametrically opposed in the color table.

The girl's dark eyes and hair are highlighted by a light and uniform background.

Her gaze is intense and thoughtful and, in the meantime, she plays with her fingers with her necklace of golden pearls, probably from the Pacific Ocean.

BIOGRAPHY

Tito Conti was born in Florence in 1842. From 1855 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence; he made his debut at the National Exhibition held in Florence in 1861 with a historical painting dedicated to Christopher Columbus.

He participated in the Promotrici fiorentine of the following years, always presenting works of a historical nature inspired by the life of Dante Alighieri. Towards the end of the 1860s, Conti, influenced by new pictorial trends, began to paint genre scenes such as Le calende di Maggio a Firenze (The Calends of May in Florence), a work he presented in Turin in 1868, La Presentazione (The Presentation) and La proposta (The Proposal). He became a professor at the Academy of his hometown and among his students was Arturo Ricci. In 1886 he created Una metà figura di donna (A Half-Figure of a Woman) for a charity sale.

He was subsequently commissioned to restore the faces of the Madonna di Casale, a tempera on wood painting from the early 13th century. The work, already heavily repainted in the mid-18th century, was restored in the 1980s, removing Conti's repainting and restoring the work to its original appearance.

The artist's fame, however, is due to his portraits, commissioned by members of Tuscan high society; Conti's painting, characterized by an almost transparent application of color, as well as soft and refined tones, was the favorite of Florentine noble women, who sometimes had themselves portrayed in historical dress, as demonstrated by the various versions of Una bellezza Italiana (1880) and La lettura. A period of absence from exhibitions and displays followed, then interrupted in 1907 with his participation in Florence with some Female Nudes. He died in 1924.