Pastel Portrait Signed By Pietro Gaudenzi, 1921

English Portrait of a young mother with her child.

Pastel on paper, signed by Pietro Gaudenzi, 1921.

The work is presented in a period oval frame with raised stucco decorations.

The frame shows visible damage and losses of gilding. There are also alterations to the pastel, notably pigment loss caused by contact with the glass, a common issue with this delicate medium.

Artist’s biographical note: Pietro Gaudenzi (1880–1955) Born in Genoa in 1880, Pietro Gaudenzi trained at the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts. In 1904, he moved to Rome on a scholarship, where he discovered the work of Sartorio, Spadini, and Michetti. In 1909, he married Candida Toppi, a model from Anticoli Corrado, an artists’ village where he later settled. He excelled in pastel portraiture, exhibited several times at the Venice Biennale, and was awarded the Mussolini Prize for the Arts in 1936. He concluded his career as director of the Vatican School of Mosaic, devoting his final years to monumental sacred art.