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Lot Essay
This lively vision of Venetian upper-class life includes all of the elements that lend Pietro Longhi's works their enduring appeal: elegant surroundings, a touch of humour and, above all, a suggestive and slightly racy subject matter. Until the last decade, Il risveglio della dama was known only through an engraving by Charles-Joseph Flipart and a number of copies in reverse; one, by the so-called Maestro dei Riflessi, today in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and another in the Salom collection, Segromigno Monte, in horizontal format (T. Pignatti, Pietro Longhi, Venice, 1968, figs. 473 and 478).
Many of Longhi's preparatory drawings survive today, including three for the figures ultimately realised here. Longhi's Seated gentleman (Museo Correr, Venice, inv. no. 563) demonstrates the artist's experimentation, sketching the gentleman both with and without his newspaper and evidently determining that its inclusion would more pointedly suggest the woman's ability to distract him from quotidian tasks. Two other preparatory drawings, one for the legs and drapery of the central lady and another for her ladies-in-waiting can also be found in the Museo Correr, Venice (inv. nos. 562 and 561 respectively).
Rising from her bed at the centre of the composition, an elegant young woman coquettishly engages the viewer as attendants help her dress and prepare a bath in a silver basin. The air of luxury and leisure is reinforced by the figure of a gentleman, in a green silk dressing-gown and gold slippers, lounging in a chair in the corner. Though he holds the morning paper in his hand, his attention has clearly been diverted by the flirtations of his pretty companion, who in turn is entirely aware of her audience. Neither appears in any hurry to leave the comfort of the bedroom for the outside world — the gentleman's black cloak and wig rest on their stands in the background and his stockings slide lazily down his legs. On the wall above the bed, a Venetian mirror with a classical nude etched in its centre also alludes to the power of female beauty. Longhi's figures have characteristically delicate features and are attired in sumptuously depicted fabrics, despite their state of undress. His palette is typically Venetian, bright and clear in tone, the luminous paint surface applied in layered glazes.
Once thought lost, Il risveglio della dama was acquired by French collector, John Grou (born Gueroult) in the early nineteenth century and taken to the United States. Born in Normandy in 1799, Grou emigrated in 1820 and settled in Connecticut, where the painting remained in his family for generations until its sale in 2021.
Many of Longhi's preparatory drawings survive today, including three for the figures ultimately realised here. Longhi's Seated gentleman (Museo Correr, Venice, inv. no. 563) demonstrates the artist's experimentation, sketching the gentleman both with and without his newspaper and evidently determining that its inclusion would more pointedly suggest the woman's ability to distract him from quotidian tasks. Two other preparatory drawings, one for the legs and drapery of the central lady and another for her ladies-in-waiting can also be found in the Museo Correr, Venice (inv. nos. 562 and 561 respectively).
Rising from her bed at the centre of the composition, an elegant young woman coquettishly engages the viewer as attendants help her dress and prepare a bath in a silver basin. The air of luxury and leisure is reinforced by the figure of a gentleman, in a green silk dressing-gown and gold slippers, lounging in a chair in the corner. Though he holds the morning paper in his hand, his attention has clearly been diverted by the flirtations of his pretty companion, who in turn is entirely aware of her audience. Neither appears in any hurry to leave the comfort of the bedroom for the outside world — the gentleman's black cloak and wig rest on their stands in the background and his stockings slide lazily down his legs. On the wall above the bed, a Venetian mirror with a classical nude etched in its centre also alludes to the power of female beauty. Longhi's figures have characteristically delicate features and are attired in sumptuously depicted fabrics, despite their state of undress. His palette is typically Venetian, bright and clear in tone, the luminous paint surface applied in layered glazes.
Once thought lost, Il risveglio della dama was acquired by French collector, John Grou (born Gueroult) in the early nineteenth century and taken to the United States. Born in Normandy in 1799, Grou emigrated in 1820 and settled in Connecticut, where the painting remained in his family for generations until its sale in 2021.