Format: Art

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Hocken Digital Collections

[Portrait of a young woman artist]

Details

Accession Number15,060CreatorNerli, G.P. (Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati), 1860-1926Also known as[Portrait of Corinna Modigliani]
[Portrait of a young woman]
The artistDate1889

Description

Media & Sizeoil: 600 x 396mm (irregular); on canvas, stretched: 612 x 406mmInscriptionsl.l. with brush: G.P. Nerli [monogram]DescriptionHolding her oil palette and brushes like a shield, and wearing an apron to protect her clothing, the subject of this portrait seems proud of the appurtenances of her calling. Surrounded by exotic fabrics, her location is ambiguous. Down at her feet gleams a decorated Polynesian headdress. She belongs to the Antipodes, yet the studio in which she is posed is dressed with the fashionable accessories of Europe’s Aesthetic Movement. Oriental lacquer work and brocades glow against the black background. Perhaps a pupil of Nerli’s, perhaps a personification of Art itself, her identity remains elusive.

Having emigrated to Australia from Italy in 1885, Nerli (1860--1926) announced his arrival with a few well-placed paintings of bacchanalian orgies. It was not only his subjects that shocked; by comparison to the tame Impressionism of the Heidelberg painters in Melbourne, his style seemed ‘dashing, unfinished and bold’. Dunedin had appealed on his brief visit in 1889, and he returned in 1893. He was to stay just three years, starting his own art school before being recruited to the Dunedin School of Art and Design, but the effect he had on art produced in the city -- including the painting of Frances Hodgkins -- was profound.ProvenanceCombined Quinquennial Grant, Sargood Trust and Endowed Pictures Fund

Depicts Or Relates To

SubjectsPortraitsWomen -- PortraitsEyre, Jane, ca 1875-1953 -- Portraits

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[Portrait of a young woman artist]

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