165 - Jean-Mathieu PEKLE (1868-1956)

Jean-Mathieu PEKLE (1868-1956) Portrait of Pepita Pietri, wife Marcantetti (1868-1903). Plaster bust. Signed and dated 1903 on the base. H. 60.5 cm. Stains, cracks on the base, small dents on the back of the base. Provenance: Château de Canari (Cap Corse), Marcantetti family. Château de Canari was the former residence of the Cenci family. The full title of the Cenci de Canari family has been "Barons of Canari, Nonza and Ogliastro" since 1556. The Cenci family was thus master of three baronies. The last representative of the family to own Canari castle was Maria Vittoria Cenci, Marquise d'Albon, who was living in Rome at the time with her French husband. She sold the château to the Mattei family, who in turn sold the barony in 1880 to Toussaint Marcantetti, pharmacist in Bastia and mayor of Canari. His three children were born at the château. This plaster bust represents Josefina Pepita Marcantetti, née Pietri, a member of an important Corsican family established in Puerto Rico in the XIXᵉ century. It is thus a moving testimony to the historical ties uniting Corsica and Puerto Rico through the great Corsican families expatriated to the Americas to make their fortunes. Josefina Pietri was born in Yauco, Puerto Rico, in 1868. She was the eldest daughter of Don José Pietri Moretti, originally from Olmeta-di-Capocorso, more precisely from the hamlet of Celle, and considered one of the most important Corsican planters in Puerto Rico. He settled in Yauco in 1858 and ran the La Salvación and Santa Teresa haciendas. His mother, Doña Teresa Pietri Ramos, the product of a marriage between first cousins, descended through her maternal line from the ancient native caciques of the island of Puerto Rico. Widowed and retired to Bastia, in her private mansion on rue Sant'Angelo, she outlived her daughter and died in 1909. Pepita married Toussaint Marcantetti, a Bastia pharmacist and owner of Château Cenci in Canari. The couple had three children. Josefina "Pepita" Marcantetti died prematurely in 1903. After his wife's death, her husband Toussaint Marcantetti commissioned two portraits of her, dated 1903, from two leading portrait painters in Corsica and particularly in the Bastia region. The first, in pastel, is by Ettore Penso, an Italian painter who received numerous commissions from Bastia's notables. The second is by Jean-Mathieu Pekle. Jean-Mathieu Pekle was one of the great Corsican sculptors of the first half of the 20th century. A sought-after portraitist, he produced numerous busts and medallions representing local personalities and island figures. He also executed several decorative elements for the Corsican Pavilion at the 1937 International Exhibition. He was also responsible for the bas-reliefs on the war memorial in Bastia's Place Saint-Nicolas, notably the famous "voceru" scene that has become emblematic of his work.