60 - Ettore Tito (1859–1941)

Ettore Tito (1859–1941) Centaur and Nymphs Oil on canvas mounted on panel 184.3 x 150 cm Signature: “E. Tito” on the front Distinguishing features: on the reverse, two labels from the 17th International Exhibition of the City of Venice, numbered 1156; an exhibition label from the Galleria Pesaro; a label numbered 50; label from the Banca Popolare di Intra with inventory references Provenance: collection of the Honorable Ernesto Belloni, Milan; collection of Lino Pesaro, Milan; Galleria Pesaro, Milan; Galleria d’arte Sant’Ambrogio, Milan; Finarte, “Auction of 19th-Century Paintings” no. 68 (Milan, Oct. 21, 1969, plates LV–LVI); Banca Popolare di Intra; Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Bibliography: “Catalogue of the Twenty-fourth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings,” exhibition catalog, Pittsburgh, 1925, n.p., ill. with the title “Centaur and Nymphs”; Raffaele Calzini, “Solo Exhibition of Works by the Painter Ettore Tito,” exhibition catalog, Milan, 1928, p. 29 (ill.), no. 2; R.V., “Milan Art Exhibitions. Antonio Mancini – Ettore Tito – Roberto Borsa – Oreste Zampieri – Annibale Scaroni – Edigio Riva – A Tribute to Adolfo De Carolis,” in “Il Giornale dell’Arte,” II, 1928, 9, pp. 3–4 under the title “Nymphs; 17th International Exhibition,” exhibition catalog, Venice 1930, p. 39, no. 4 under the title “Centaurs and Nymphs”; Ugo Nebbia, “XVII International Art Exhibition. Venice 1930,” Milan, 1930, p. 13 (ill.); Mario Biancale, “Italian Art at the 17th Venice Biennale,” in “Rassegna Italiana,” XIII, Series III, 1930, 146, pp. 8–24, p. 18 under the title “Centaur; “The Lino Pesaro Collection,” Milan-Rome, [1931], plate XXXVIII (ill.) titled “Nymphs and Centaurs; Echoes of Current Events,” in “Corriere della Sera,” January 19, 1931, p. 6; Vincenzo Costantini, “Contemporary Italian Painting: From the Late 19th Century to the Present,” Milan, 1934, p. 22; Vincenzo Costantini, “Italian Sculpture and Painting (1880–1926),” Milan, 1940, p. 33; Luigi Marangoni, “Ettore Tito,” Venice, 1945, p. 18, plate XXX (ill.) titled “Centaurs and Nymphs”; Mario Borgiotti, Paul Nicholls, “Women and Children in 19th-Century Italian Painting,” Vol. III, Milan, 1969, plates 281–282 (ill.); Piero Dini, Sandra Rebershck, and Giuseppe Luigi Marini, eds., “Bolaffi Catalog of 19th-Century Italian Painting,” vol. 3, Turin, 1970, p. 461 (ill.); “Record of Carnegie Institute’s International Exhibitions 1896–1996,” Boston, 1998, p. 337 (ill.); Angelo Enrico and Francesco Luigi Maspes, eds., “Ettore Tito: A Catalog Raisonné of His Works,” Crocetta del Montello, 2020, pp. 306–307, no. 224 (ill.), plate p. 182 (ill.) Exhibitions: “Twenty-fourth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings,” Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, 1925; “Solo Exhibition of the Painter Ettore Tito,” Galleria Pesaro, Milan, 1928; “XVII International Exhibition,” Venice, 1930, no. 1156, plates 281–282. Condition. Support: 95% Condition. Surface: 85% (overpainting) For direct WhatsApp assistance before and during the live auction: +39 346 12 999 80 // Direct assistance via WhatsApp before and during the auction: +39 346 12 999 80 An artist of prodigious talent and a favorite student of Pompeo Marino Molmenti at the Academy of Venice, Ettore Tito (Castellammare di Stabia 1859 – Venice 1941) was one of the leading figures in international painting between the 19th and 20th centuries. He received awards in Paris in 1887 for “Pescheria vecchia” and in Munich in 1891 for “Lavandaie nel Garda”; in the 1890s he worked as an illustrator for the famous English magazine *The Graphic* and for the American publishing house Scribner’s, and frequented the most exclusive and cosmopolitan Venetian salons. In 1895, he was appointed to the organizing committee of the first Venice Biennale, where he would play a leading role for many years. At the turn of the century, he alternated between lively scenes of Venetian life and social themes. “The Wheel of Fortune,” exhibited at the 1895 Biennale, is one of the first canvases to reveal a new Symbolist tendency within a Neo-Renaissance context, “whose influences lie between Sartorio and the Germans, particularly in a reinterpretation of motifs popularized by Böcklin” (Ferdinando Mazzocca, “The Fortune of Ettore Tito: Tiepolo’s Legacy in Cosmopolitan Venice,” in Alessandro Bettagno (ed.), “Ettore Tito 1859–1941,” exhibition catalog, Milan 1998, pp. 15–, p. 18), which reached its peak in “Amore e le Parche” (Palermo, Empedocle Restivo Civic Gallery of Modern Art), presented at the 1909 Biennale. It is a painting that enchants, as Ettore Cozzani wrote in 1928 in *L’Eroica*—a painting composed of flickering light and shadow—“it was life lived with grace and joy: in painting, he had to confess himself through things […]. His technique was characterized by sincerity and spontaneity. […] Certain figures are immersed in vast spaces dominated by color and the breath of air and water; certain scenes are so complex that the forms, one by