Mario Micheletti

MARIO MICHELETTI (Italy, 1892 - 1975).
"Portrait of a lady".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 71 x 50 cm, 78 x 57,50 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author portrays a woman, captured in the foreground, frontally, in a completely natural attitude that moves away from the canons of the genre, breaking with the protocol distance that is usually established in the portrait between spectator and model. Nevertheless, the absolute center of the image is the serious countenance of the young woman, whose concentrated eyes are directed towards something we do not see, losing themselves in the distance. As in the rest of Europe, the portrait became in the 19th century the leading genre par excellence in French painting, as a consequence of the new social structures that were established in the Western world throughout this century, embodying the maximum expression of the transformation of the taste and mentality of the new clientele, which emerged among the nobility and the wealthy upper middle class, who would take the reins of history in this period. While official circles gave preponderance to other artistic genres, such as history painting, and the incipient collecting encouraged the profusion of costume paintings, portraiture monopolized the demand for painting destined for the more private sphere, as a reflection of the value of the individual in the new society. This genre embodies the permanent presence of the image of its protagonists, to be enjoyed in the intimacy of a studio, in the daily warmth of a family cabinet or presiding over the main rooms of the house.