212 - GIUSEPPE DE SANCTIS (1858–1924)

GIUSEPPE DE SANCTIS (1858–1924) Profile of a Young Woman Original oil on canvas, signed in the upper left corner; some flaking and minor losses. Dimensions: 61 x 46 cm - An Italian painter born in Naples, he was the son of Cesare De Sanctis, a businessman with a passion for art and music and a friend of Giuseppe Verdi, who also served as the painter’s godfather at his baptism. Encouraged by his family, he studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples around 1872 under Domenico Morelli, Filippo Palizzi, and Gioacchino Toma. He then spent time in London and, above all, in Paris, where he became a student of Gérôme and Bouveret. This Parisian experience refined his more delicate and elegant style of painting beautiful portraits of women during this turn-of-the-century period—exactly the style to which our painting belongs.