A Country Gentleman

ca. 1750

Italian, Brescia, 1698-1767

Ceruti is best known for his unsentimental and closely observed paintings of beggars and impoverished laborers. The unusual freshness and directness that Ceruti brought to these subjects carried over into his more conventional portraits of eminent citizens of Brescia, a city in northern Italy.

Oil on canvas

37 1/4 X 29 3/8 in.

Samuel H. Kress Collection

61.149

Provenance: [Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955), Rome-Florence]; purchased by Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, July 1, 1950 (exhibited: I Pittori della Realta in Lombardia, Palazzo Reale, Milan, April-July 1953, no. 138 of catalogue by R. Cipriani and G. Testori); Seattle Art Museum, since 1954, accessioned 1961 (exhibited Style, Truth and the Portrait, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, October 1 – November 10, 1963, no. 28 of catalogue by R.G. Saisselin)

Photo: Earl Fields

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Wash., Seattle Art Museum, Italian Painting and Sculptures: Samuel H. Kress Collection, June 24-Oct. 5, 1952. Text by William Suida and Sherman Lee. Cat. no. 24, pp. 9, 22.

Milan, Italy, Palazzo Reale, I Pittori della Realtà in Lombardia, Apr.-July 1953. Cat. no.138.

Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Art Museum, Style, Truth and the Portrait, Oct. 1-Nov. 10, 1963. Text by Rémy G. Saisselin. Cat. no. 28.

Published ReferencesSuida, William and Richard Fuller. European Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1954; p. 72, reproduced p. 73.

Saisselin, Rémy G. "The Portrait in History." Apollo 78, no. 20 (Oct. 1963): p. 282, fig. 3.

Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century. London: Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1973; no. K1771, p. 108, fig. 203.

Ishikawa, Chiyo. The Samuel H. Kress Collection at the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1997; fig. 48, pp. 74-75.

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