Giacomo Ceruti, called Pitocchetto

Anonymous sale, London, Phillips, 11 December 1990, lot 84, where withdrawn at the owner's request;

Anonymous sale, London, Bonhams, 5 July 2006, lot 81;

Acquired subsequently by the present owner.

F. Frangi, Giacomo Ceruti 1698–1767. Popolo e nobiltà alla vigilia dell'età dei Lumi, F. Frangi and A. Morandotti (eds), exh. cat., Milan 2013, pp. 48–49, no. 10, reproduced in colour.

Although well known for his portraits, still lifes, and religious paintings, Giacomo Ceruti is most celebrated as a painter of genre and low-life scenes, depicting his humble subjects with striking naturalism and unusual dignity. His humble portrayals of people living at the margins of society, uncompromising in their realism, helped forge his reputation as an exceptional observer of the everyday and earned him the sobriquet Pitocchetto (little beggar).

This refined and highly engaging portrait has been identified by Francesco Frangi as one of Ceruti's most poignant and accomplished works (see Literature). Painted using an austere palette of earth and grey tones, it depicts a pitocco (beggar) absorbed in a moment of quiet introspection, his dignified gaze directed outwards, almost inviting the viewer to reflect on his bitter fate. On stylistic grounds, the work is dated by Frangi to circa 1735 and compares closely with other works from this period, similarly characterised by a meticulous rendering of the sitter’s features and clothing. Particularly significant is the comparison with a work depicting a group of beggars in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, painted in 1736 for Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661–1747), whose protagonists share the same finely observed gray-haired and timeworn features, as well as the same absorbed and meditative quality found in the present work.¹ However, while the Thyssen-Bornemisza picture presents a full-figure composition, Ceruti here tightens the framing around the figure’s face — an approach also adopted in other paintings of the same period, such as a depiction of a beggar in the in the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Gothenburg,² and his Self-Portrait as a Pilgrim in the Museo Villa Bassi Rathgeb, Abano Terme.³

¹ Inv. no. 86; oil on canvas, 130.5 x 95 cm.; https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/ceruti-giacomo/group-beggars

² Inv. no. GKM1890; oil on canvas, 74.5 x 57.5 cm.; D. Gasparotto, Giacomo Ceruti. A Compassionate Eye, D. Gasparotto (ed.), exh. cat., Los Angeles 2023, pp. 94–95, no. 15, reproduced in colour.

³ Inv. no. 13; oil on canvas, 64.7 x 46.8 cm.; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Giacomo_Ceruti_-_Self-portrait_as_a_Pilgrim.jpg