Vincenzo Migliaro (1858 - 1938) - Maternity- Circa 1890.

Oil on panel Signed upper right
Dimensions: 10 x 18 cm With frame: 26.5 x 33.5 cm

Vincent Migliaro represents a scene full of smile and tenderness. A woman, nurse or mother, supports a naked child. It stands on a cut trunk, like a sculpture on its plinth. The touch is free, poetic, without the painting being devoid of precision and delicate details.


After learning the art of printmaking, he was a pupil of the sculptor Stanislao Lista (1824-1908), then, at the Beaux-Arts in Naples, of Federico Maldarelli (1826–93), Raffaele Postiglione (1818–97) and Domenico Morelli. In 1877 he won second prize in a national painting competition, after which he spent some time in Paris and Venice. At the time, two opposing tendencies came together in Migliaro's style: on the one hand, a spontaneous approach scrupulously respecting the effects of light and atmosphere, on the other, a roughness and imprecision leading to distortion and lack of realism.

He painted figures, landscapes and genre scenes. Its main source of inspiration was the uses, life and people of the small Neapolitan people, as well as the activity of the residents of the Spanish quarter. The last years of his life he was appointed director of painting at the Academy of Naples.
He exhibited in Turin, Venice, Naples and Paris.

Museums:. Naples (Museum of Modern Art), Rome (Museum of Modern Art) Bibliography:. "Vincenzo Migliaro", Bénézit, Oxford Art Online, 2011