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ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
ANALECTA ROMANA
 INSTITUTI DANICI

      XLIII
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
ANALECTA ROMANA
  INSTITUTI DANICI

       XLIII

        2018

      ROMAE MMXVIII
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII
© 2019 Accademia di Danimarca
ISSN 2035-2506

                                        Scientific Board

         Karoline Prien Kjeldsen (Bestyrelsesformand, Det Danske Institut i Rom, -30.04.18)
                Mads Kähler Holst (Bestyrelsesformand, Det Danske Institut i Rom)
                         Jens Bertelsen (Bertelsen & Scheving Arkitekter)
                        Maria Fabricius Hansen (Københavns Universitet)
                           Peter Fibiger Bang (Københavns Universitet)
                         Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt (Aalborg Universitet)
                            Karina Lykke Grand (Aarhus Universitet)
                            Thomas Harder (Forfatter/writer/scrittore)
                            Morten Heiberg (Københavns Universitet)
                          Michael Herslund (Copenhagen Business School)
                              Hanne Jansen (Københavns Universitet)
                           Kurt Villads Jensen (Stockholms Universitet)
                     Erik Vilstrup Lorenzen (Den Danske Ambassade i Rom)
                               Mogens Nykjær (Aarhus Universitet)
                              Vinnie Nørskov (Aarhus Universitet)
                   Niels Rosing-Schow (Det Kgl. Danske Musikkonservatorium)
                              Poul Schülein (Arkitema, København)
                              Lene Schøsler (Københavns Universitet)
                           Erling Strudsholm (Københavns Universitet)
                       Lene Østermark-Johansen (Københavns Universitet)

                                      Editorial Board
                Marianne Pade (Chair of Editorial Board, Det Danske Institut i Rom)
                         Patrick Kragelund (Danmarks Kunstbibliotek)
                        Sine Grove Saxkjær (Det Danske Institut i Rom)
                            Gert Sørensen (Københavns Universitet)
                          Anna Wegener (Det Danske Institut i Rom)
                      Maria Adelaide Zocchi (Det Danske Institut i Rom)

Analecta Romana Instituti Danici. — Vol. I (1960) — . Copenhagen: Munksgaard. From
1985: Rome, «L’ERMA» di Bretschneider. From 2007 (online): Accademia di Danimarca.

ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI encourages scholarly contributions within
the Academy’s research fields. All contributions will be peer reviewed. Manuscripts to be
considered for publication should be sent to: accademia@acdan.it
Authors are requested to consult the journal’s guidelines at www.acdan.it
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
Contents

Maurizio Paoletti: “Kleom(b)rotos, figlio di Dexilaos, (mi) dedicò”. L’offerta di un atleta vincitore
			                  ad Olimpia nel santuario di Francavilla Marittima                                    7

Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Peter Attema, Carmelo Colelli, Francesca Ippolito, Gloria
Mittica, Sine Grove Saxkjær: The Bronze and Iron Age habitation on Timpone della Motta in
			                  the light of recent research                                                        25

Daniel Damgaard: Architectural Terracottas from Etrusco-Italic Temples on the Later Forum of
			                Ostia Archaic Ostia Revisited                                                         91

Christine Jeanneret: Making Opera in Migration. Giuseppe Sarti’s Danish Recipe for Italian
			Opera                                                                                                111

Nikola D. Bellucci: Danici sodales. Schow e Zoëga nel carteggio Baffi (e Baffi nel carteggio
			                 Zoëga). Analisi e confronti                                                         135

Marianne Saabye: P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                               149
Anna Wegener: Italian Translations of Scandinavian Literature in the Interwar Period: A
			Bibliographic Overview                                                                               179

Reports:

Gloria Mittica & Nicoletta Perrone: Espressioni votive e rituali nel Santuario arcaico di
			                Timpone della Motta. Le novità dagli scavi DIR 2017                                  237

Domenico A. M. Marino & Carmelo Colelli: Crotone. Lo scavo urbano di Fondo Gesù                         265
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca
                                       and the Neapolitan art scene

                                                    by Marianne Saabye

Abstract. The article addresses the relationship between the Danish painter P.S. Krøyer (1851–1909) and the Italian sculptor Pasquale
Fosca (1852–1928). They met in 1880, shared a studio in Naples for a few months and maintained a lifelong acquaintance ever since,
as is evident from thirty hitherto unpublished letters. This material, in conjunction with the recent emergence of works held in
private collections, has made it possible to shed new light on this previously quite unknown sculptor’s work. Through exhibitions in
Paris and Turin, Krøyer was familiar with works by artists associated with the Neapolitan Verismo style. He was a great admirer of
several Verismo artists, which were affiliated with the city’s art scene and as such also part of Fosca’s background. Although Krøyer’s
stay in Naples was brief, it expanded his knowledge of Neapolitan art and helped him form an impression of specific themes and
the bright southern light that would be part of the backdrop for his further development.

Introduction                                                            contribute new information about the two
While staying in Italy in 1880, the young                               artists.
Danish artist P.S. Krøyer (1851-1909) became                                The general awareness and knowledge
acquainted with Pasquale Fosca (1852-1928),                             of Pasquale Fosca and his work has been
a Neapolitan sculptor belonging to the same                             relatively modest in scope, based mainly
generation. The two men formed a lasting                                on contemporary exhibition lists and older
friendship that only ended with the death of                            printed sources, and many of his works have
Krøyer; a friendship documented by the letters,                         been unknown to scholars. As is stated in the
thirty in all, found among Krøyer’s surviving                           catalogue for the Il Bello o il Vero exhibition
papers at The Hirschsprung Collection in                                of sculptures presented in Naples in 2014-15,
Copenhagen. The correspondence available                                Fosca never won great fame on the Neapolitan
to us is one-sided: only Fosca’s letters survive                        art scene.1 However, a range of works in private
today. However, they do at times directly                               ownership have emerged, displaying a quality
reflect the contents of the letters that the                            that reaffirms the merits of seeking to throw
Danish painter had sent to him. Never                                   new light upon the sculptor’s endeavours,
previously published, this collection of letters                        examining them against the backdrop of the
constitutes valuable source material that can                           letters.

1
    Saut 2014, 508.
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
150                                         Marianne Saabye

   It should be noted that this effort does               under the French painter Léon Bonnat (1833-
not denote an attempt at creating a complete              1922), and his travels also included long
inventory of the works of Fosca; the material             sojourns in Spain and Brittany. Crucially, he
available is as yet too sparse and too difficult          had become acquainted with the most recent
to manage for such an undertaking – partly                tendencies in the realm of art at the Paris
due to the fact that the dating currently                 Salons and at the 1878 World Exposition.
associated with his sculptures pertain to the             In October of 1879, partly funded by his
time at which they were cast, not when they               friend and patron, the art collector Heinrich
were originally created, which may be many                Hirschsprung (1835-1908), Krøyer travelled
years previously. What is more, the titles of             to Italy and spent the winter in Rome.
some works appear to have changed over the                    In mid-April 1880, Krøyer spent a few
time, making several sculptures difficult to              weeks in Naples and its environs in the
identify. Thus, this article will focus primarily         company of the Danish painter Harald Foss
on the new contributions to our knowledge                 (1843–1922) and a few Scandinavian friends.
provided by the Krøyer letters.                           On his way back, Krøyer broke his journey
   The main emphasis falls on the period                  in the town of Sora, southeast of Rome,
prior to Fosca’s emigration to South America              on the outskirts of the Abruzzi Apennines.
in 1889, at which point the correspondence                Enchanted by the town and area, he decided
between the two men grew less frequent in                 to return there to engage in plein-air studies
scope. Based on the material available at                 and to paint a few larger-scale paintings.2 Later
present, the article will venture to offer an             that summer, he was joined by two Norwegian
assessment of the quality of Fosca’s work and             painters: Christian Meyer Ross (1843–1904)
of the stylistic tendencies that can be observed          and Eilif Peterssen (1852–1928), the latter
in his pieces, seen in relation to Neapolitan             accompanied by his wife, Nicoline. Krøyer
art of the time which still retained its own              stayed on until mid-October, producing two
schooling and distinctive character within its            large-scale paintings: Italian Field Labourers
wider Italian context.                                    (Brandts, Odense) and Italian Village Hatters
   Unlike Fosca’s body of work, Krøyer’s                  (The Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen)
oeuvre is well elucidated, which is hardly                – the Village Hatters scene would win him his
surprising given his status as one of the most            international breakthrough at the Paris Salon
prominent Danish artists of the late nineteenth           the following year.
century. Indeed, his association with Fosca in                While in Sora, Krøyer met the young
Sora and his subsequent work at the sculptor’s            sculptor Pasquale Fosca (1852–1928). Born in
studio have already been referred to in the               Sora, Fosca retained close ties to the city even
available literature. However, the new review             though he had lived in Naples ever since he
of Fosca’s letters has given cause to examine             was a child. Fosca also struck up a friendship
whether they yield up new information that                with the two Norwegian painters Meyer Ross
may shed new light on the impact of Krøyer’s              and Peterssen, with whom he stayed in touch
two-month sojourn in Naples on his art.                   in the years that followed, for example while
                                                          staying in Rome in early 1882. In the case
Meeting in Sora. Krøyer’s debut as a sculptor             of Ross, the friendship lasted right up until
P.S. Krøyer arrived in Italy as part of a year-           his death in 1904. Fosca’s circle of friends in
long grand study tour commencing in France                Sora also included the young lawyer Vincenzo
in the summer of 1877. In Paris he studied                Simoncelli (1860–1917), another native of

2
    PSK to Heinrich Hirschsprung, Sora 3.5.1880, DHS, HH Arkiv no. 723.

 P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                                                         151

Sora who worked in Naples. He would support
Fosca on several occasions later in life.3
    Krøyer did his very first sculpture in Sora,
presumably with guidance from Fosca. There
are signs suggesting that Meyer Ross also tried
his hand at sculpting.4 While the results of the
Norwegian artist’s efforts are unknown today,
we do know that Krøyer sculpted A Peasant
from the Abruzzo, of which he brought home
a plaster version. (Fig. 1) The bust represents
a young man with a distant look in his eyes,
tight features in a delicately chiselled face,
which wears a solemn expression. A similar
mood is evident in Krøyer’s drawing of a
Roman campagnol, 1881, (The Hirschsprung
Collection), an interesting demonstration of
                                                                                Fig. 1. P.S. Krøyer: A Peasant from the
the artist’s endeavours to arrive at a realistic                                Abruzzo / En Bonde fra Abruzzerne,
mode of expression.5 Given that this was                                        1880. Plaster. H. 40.3 cm. Inscribed: S.
Krøyer’s first venture into sculpting, the result                               Krøyer. Sora 188[0]. The Hirschsprung
                                                                                Collection, Copenhagen. (Photo: The
can only be described as successful. Fosca must                                 Hirschsprung Collection).
have kept a plaster version of the bust, for
shortly afterwards he states in a letter that he
has carved ‘the bust of the peasant in marble’,
suggesting that Krøyer might want to exhibit                  to Denmark in 1881, presumably while
it at the Paris Salon. However, this never came               summering with the Hirschsprung family,
to bear.6 We know that Fosca also created a                   during which time he also painted a large
bust, its current whereabouts unknown, of                     family portrait of them.8 Krøyer sculpted
a peasant from Sora, Contadino di Sora. The                   a portrait bust of his host, of which we
date of its creation is unknown; all that we                  now know one terracotta version and one
know is that a marble version was exhibited                   in plaster, each painted in a different way, a
in Turin in 1884.7 Whether the inception of                   method that Krøyer may have seen employed
the two works is connected remains a matter                   in Naples. He also did a bust of his friend
of conjecture.                                                Anton Svendsen, a violinist, and the two
    Encouraged by this initial attempt and by                 portraits were shown alongside the plaster
spending time with Fosca, Krøyer created a                    version of A Peasant from the Abruzzo at the
number of busts in the years to come, mainly                  annual juried Charlottenborg exhibition in
depicting friends. The first of these busts                   Copenhagen in 1882.9 On that occasion,
were created immediately after his return                     Krøyer wrote the following in a letter to the

3
    Gulia 2010.                                               5
                                                                  Kokkin 2016c, 225, fig. 44. The drawing is a pre-
4
    Christian Meyer Ross to PSK, Sora 13.7.1882, DHS,             liminary study for a painting acquired by Bernhard
    PSK Arkiv no. 2441 ‘where we bought our plaster, you’ll       Hirschsprung.
    recollect’. PF to PSK, Sora 2.10.1883, no. 2722 – here    6
                                                                  PF to PSK, Naples 6.12.[1881], no. 2741
    Fosca states that “Ross also wants to do sculpture        7
                                                                  Giannelli 1916, 584; Esposizione Generale 1884, cat.
    like his two painter friends”. These friends are pre-         no. 254.
    sumably Theodor Philipsen and Viggo Pedersen,             8
                                                                  Schram Vejlby 2011.
    who were staying in Sora at the time and whom             9
                                                                  Kunstudstillingen ved Charlottenborg, Charlottenborg
    Fosca mentions by name in the same letter. See                1882, cat. nos. 306, 307 & 308.
    “Kronologi” in Kokkin et al. 2016, 282 & 284.
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
152
		  Marianne Saabye

painter Laurits Tuxen:                                    Fosca tried to sell the original terracotta bust
                                                          and a plaster version to Peterssen, who had to
     Did you hear that I have done a bust of              decline on financial grounds.
     Svendsen and another of Hirschsprung?                    It would appear that the bust, whose
     They are not bad at all. Yet I do believe            current whereabouts are regrettably unknown,
     that the best of the lot is the bust I did in        shipped in late December 1880. Whether due
     the Abruzzi last summer. It was very well            to the aforementioned stains on the forehead
     received among the artists here.10                   or no, it would appear that Eilif Peterssen was
                                                          not entirely pleased with the result; we know
He also sent photographs of his busts to Fosca,           this from a reply by Fosca to Krøyer, stating
who praised them highly and encouraged him                that he is only sorry that the bust failed to fully
to continue sculpting.                                    satisfy Eilif. Fosca also states that he hopes to
                                                          be able to do another when he, as he puts it,
Fosca’s busts of Nicoline Peterssen and P.S. Krøyer       has ‘improved my art’.14
On 11 October Krøyer left Sora and travelled                  Krøyer’s bust is mentioned in a letter sent
to Naples, where he joined Eilif and Nicoline             by Fosca in mid-December 1880, but more
Peterssen. They visited numerous places                   than a year would pass before the final result
together, including Capri, where they spent               could be shipped to Copenhagen.15 When one
ten days. It would appear that they met up with           of Krøyer’s friends from Paris, the painter
Meyer Ross upon their return to Naples. Eilif             and sculptor Constantine Sinanides (1856–
and Nicoline Peterssen returned to Rome in                1940?), arrived in Naples in July 1881, Krøyer
early November, whereas Krøyer stayed in                  apparently asked him to investigate the
Naples until some time in December.11                     matter and its progress. In his reply, Sinanides
   While in Sora, Pasquale Fosca sculpted                 reaffirms that the work is underway and that
a bust of Krøyer – and presumably this                    the foundry is responsible for the delay.16
was also where he did a portrait of Eilif                 Subsequent stumbling blocks include sprues
Peterssen’s wife.12 Back in Naples that                   and flash to be removed, the chiselling and
autumn, Fosca prepared to cast the bust of                patination processes, and problems with the
Nicoline Peterssen, and in early December                 base. When the sculpture is finally ready to
1880 Krøyer was able to write the following               ship, financial matters become a problem too,
in a letter to Eilif Peterssen:                           for in addition to shipping the bust, Fosca and
                                                          Krøyer had apparently agreed that Fosca was
     Well – your wife’s bust arrived today, and           to include a large quantity of wine for Krøyer
     most comely it looks, much, much better              in the same shipment, which would of course
     than the clay. The base also does it credit,         entail a considerable outlay. A similar scenario
     it is a lovely stone. Sadly, a few stains have       would take place again at a later date.
     appeared on the forehead, but Fosca says                  The small bronze bust and the original
     they will fade and disappear in time. Other          terracotta model were eventually shipped
     than this, the colouring is excellent, and I         towards the end of 1881, but it would appear
     greatly look forward to seeing my own in a           that the shipment was late in arriving, for in
     similar form.13                                      early 1882 a clearly impatient Fosca presses

10
     PSK to Laurits Tuxen, Nørrevold 20.11.1881, KB.           3.10.1880, DHS, HH Arkiv, no. 730 .
     NKS 2339,5 2*.                                       13
                                                               PSK to Eilif Peterssen, Naples 3.12.1880, Univer-
11
     PSK to Eilif Peterssen, Naples 25.10.1880, Univer-        sity of Oslo Library, Brevsml. 209, no. 651.
     sity of Oslo Library, Brevsml. 209, no. 649. Eilif   14
                                                               PF to PSK [1881], no. 2733.
     Peterssen to PSK, Rome 6.12.1880, DHS. PSK           15
                                                               PF to PSK [dec. 1880], no. 2738.
     Arkiv, no. 2416                                      16
                                                               Constantine Sinanides to PSK Paris 15.10.1881,
12
     PSK to Heinrich Hirschsprung, Sora di Campagna            DHS, PSK Arkiv, no. 2787.
ANALECTA ROMANA INSTITUTI DANICI XLIII - Det Danske Institut i Rom
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                               153

Krøyer for a response.17 – We do not know                      Nannina – Krøyer in Fosca’s studio
his reply, but looking at the two busts now                    Krøyer used his travels in the region of Naples
found at Skagens Museum, we see that the                       in the autumn of 1880 as a way to relax. In
terracotta version with the ’smiling’ eyes has a               addition to his time on Capri, he had visited
particularly exquisite lifelike immediacy. (Figg.              Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi and, later, the
2 and 3.)                                                      ancient city of Herculaneum. Krøyer himself
                                                               writes that he has held neither pen nor brush
                                                               throughout this period, presumably as a
                                                               response to the exertions of painting the two
                                                               monumental paintings he had created in Sora.18
                                                               In November, however, he settled in Naples
                                                               and took up work in Fosca’s studio, which
                                                               was located in the Santa Lucia neighbourhood
                                                               near the harbour. Part of his objective was to
                                                               do a commission for Heinrich Hirschsprung,
                                                               who at the time collected a number of works
                                                               depicting colourful Southern European types,
                                                               especially picturesque individuals. Krøyer had
                                                               been specifically asked to depict ‘an Italian
                                                               woman’.
                                                                   On 22 November, Krøyer wrote a letter to
                                                               Hirschsprung:

                                                                    I have resumed painting. I am currently
                                                                    painting a young girl from Naples, around
                                                                    the age of sixteen, a small flower seller.
                                                                    I am painting her in the studio of an
Fig. 2. Pasquale Fosca, Bust of Peter Severin Krøyer / Buste
af P.S. Krøyer, 1880. Terracotta. H. 40.5 cm. Skagens               Italian friend. She is dressed in light and
Kunstmuseer, Skagen (Photo: Skagens Kunstmuseer).                   bright colours, holding a basket of roses
                                                                    and a wealth of lovely flowers in her lap.
                                                                    I imagine it would be well suited for you
                                                                    and your vestibule. First, we must see if
                                                                    anything good comes of it all. The girl
                                                                    herself is certainly comely.

                                                               A few days later, he offered the following
                                                               report to Eilif Peterssen:

                                                                    I have begun to paint. Nothing very
                                                                    significant, but it will be enough to fulfil
                                                                    the commission that you may recall I got
Fig. 3. Pasquale Fosca, Bust of
Peter Severin Krøyer / Buste af P.S.                                from back home. For I am painting Fosca’s
Krøyer, 1880. Bronze. H. 39 cm.                                     little model – you know of whom I speak,
Skagens Kunstmuseer, Skagen                                         I presume – as a flower girl, wearing real
(Photo: Skagens Kunstmuseer).

17
     PF to PSK, Naples 6.12.[1881] and Rome 16.2.1882,         18
                                                                    PSK to Heinrich Hirschsprung, Naples 22.11.1880,
     nos. 2741 and 2721.                                            DHS, HH Arkiv, no. 732.
154                                                 Marianne Saabye

Fig. 4. P.S. Krøyer, Nannina. A Neapolitan Flo-
wer Seller / Nannina. En napolitansk blomstersæl-
gerske, 1880. Preliminary work. Oil on panel.
32.7 x 23.9 cm. Sign.: ‘P.S. Krøyer 1880’. Pri-
vate collection (Photo: Bruun Rasmussens
Kunstauktioner).
                                                     Fig. 5. P.S. Krøyer, Nannina. A Neapolitan Flower Seller / Nannina.
                                                     En napolitansk blomstersælgerske, 1880. Oil on canvas. 75.8 x 63.5 cm.
                                                     Sign.: ‘S. Krøyer Napoli Decbr-80’. The Hirschsprung Collection,
                                                     Copenhagen (Photo: The Hirschsprung Collection).

     Neapolitan costume with light, bright                       November, dedicated to ‘mio caro amico’,
     colours, large pins in her hair and a basket                and a second, rather larger preliminary study
     on her lap filled with glorious roses, pansies              painted on panel. (Fig. 4 ) We know of the
     and the like, smiling out at the observer. I                former by reputation and reference only,
     am working at Fosca’s studio. At first, the                 whereas the latter, which has been on the
     entire subject was slightly distasteful to me,              auction circuit, is quite identical to the final
     not natural enough, too contrived, but now                  painting in terms of its composition, the
     that I have spent some time working on                      angled point of view leading up to the sitter,
     it, I find that it interests me, and I believe              and in the details.20
     that I have achieved good colours in it. As                    The finished painting of Nannina can
     a result, I will stay on here in Naples for yet             be described as a large genre portrait. (Fig.
     another half-score days or so.19                            5) While it does put emphasis on the ‘folk
                                                                 scene’ aspect of the image, it nevertheless
Two sketches for the final painting exist: a                     differs from the traditional genre pieces done
small preliminary study given to Fosca on 20                     by Danish Golden Age artists by putting

19
     PSK to Eilif Peterssen, Naples 25.11.1880, Univer-              cm); Mentze 1969, 94; Hornung 2002, 132–133;
     sity of Oslo Library, Brevsml. 209, no. 650 .                   Halkier & Saabye, 204-207, cat. no 50. fig. 26.
20
     Christensen 1923, no. 248 (dimensions: 12.5 x 9.5
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                                             155

Fig. 6. Hans Thoma, A Neapolitan
Girl with a Guitar / Napolitanerin, 1880.
Watercolour, opaque pigments and
pencil on paper. 484 x 370 mm. Sign.:
‘Neapel 2. Arpil 80’. Preliminary work
for oil painting. Staatliche Kunsthal-
le Karlsruhe (Photo: bpk. Staatsliche
Kunsthalle Karlsruhe/Annette Fi-
scher/Heike Hohler).

                                                                   Fig. 7. P.S. Krøyer: Young Girl Playing with a Cat / En lille
greater emphasis on character and by being                         Pige som leger med en Kat, 1880. Oil on canvas. 73.7 x 52.5
quite substantial in size. Genre portraits were                    cm. Sign.: ‘S. Krøyer Rom 80’. Private collection (Pho-
popular at the time, and while in Spain Krøyer                     to: Das Kunst & Auktionshaus, Hannover).
had painted another painting in the same
style, depicting The Old Isabel, 1879, (Brandts,
Odense). Stylistically, the portrait of Nannina
was entirely in keeping with the painting that
the German painter Hans Thoma (1839–
1924) had painted in Naples a few months
earlier: a commission piece showing a young
woman playing the guitar, dressed in colourful
local costume and wearing distinctive earrings,
hairpins and a shawl.21 (Fig. 6)
    As Krøyer stated in his letter to Eilif
                                                                                                      Fig. 8. Gesualdo Gatti,
Peterssen, he was initially rather sceptical                                                          The Cat and the Mouse /
about the commission, describing the subject                                                          Il gatto e il topo, bronze.
as ‘not natural enough, too contrived’. For the                                                       H. 142 cm. Sign.: ‘G.
                                                                                                      Gatti’, ‘Fonderia Bra-
Naturalists of the day, such artificially arranged                                                    cale Napoli’, ‘Galata’.
subjects was anathema to their ambition of                                                            Collezione Gargiulo,
                                                                                                      Naples (Reproduced
depicting their subject matter as it appeared                                                         after the catalogue Il
in real life at a specific moment. Earlier in the                                                     Bello o il Vero).

21
     Thode 1909, reproduced p. 149 (Napolitanerin. 1880, oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm); Thoma 1989, fig. 62; Thoma 1919, xxxii.
156                                             Marianne Saabye

spring, while in Rome, Krøyer had painted a
picture possessed of a very different kind of
spontaneity and dynamism: a scene showing
a little Italian girl playing with a cat.22 (Fig. 7)
In this work, the artist succeeded in conjuring
up a single moment, conveying the trickles of
excitement running all the way through the                                                       Fig.    9.    P.S.
girl’s body out into the very tips of her fingers.                                               Krøyer, Nannina
Krøyer’s subject shares many similarities with                                                   Holding Tubes of
                                                                                                 Paint / Nannina
the Neapolitan sculptor Gesualdo Gatti’s                                                         stående med Farve-
(1855-93) The Cat and Mouse (Il gatto e il topo).                                                tuber, 1880. Oil
Originally exhibited in Naples in 1877, the                                                      on canvas. 58
                                                                                                 x 36 cm. Sign.:
sculpture was subsequently copied and                                                            ‘Krøyer Napoli
reproduced many times.23 (Fig. 8) Krøyer may                                                     3 Decbr 80’. Pri-
                                                                                                 vate collection
or may not have been familiar with Gatti’s                                                       (Photo: Mogens
sculpture, but whatever the case may be, this                                                    Winther).
picture demonstrates that he was entirely
on board with the issues that interested the
Italian Verists of the time, their emphasis on
realism and the sense of depicting a single
moment. Presumably Krøyer would have
liked to see more of that kind of immediacy
in his depiction of the flower seller.
    Back in Copenhagen, however, the
large portrait of Nannina was greeted with
tremendous enthusiasm by the Hirschsprung
household. The family kept the painting
under wraps until it could be presented at the
annual juried Charlottenborg exhibition in
Copenhagen in 1881, where it attracted a great
deal of attention. And when Hirschsprung
staged the first public presentation of his
art collection at Charlottenborg in 1888 – a
collection that was already substantial by then
– this was the painting chosen for the cover of
                                                                                                Fig. 10. Vincenzo
the catalogue and for the poster advertising the                                                Caprile, The Dowry
show. In the words of Pauline Hirschsprung,                                                     of Rita / La dote di
Nannina had become part of the family. 24                                                       Rita, 1880. Oil on
                                                                                                canvas. Sign.: ‘V.
    Shortly before Krøyer left Naples he                                                        Caprile’. Owner
painted another picture of Nannina: a half-                                                     unknown (Photo:
                                                                                                Michaan’s Auction
length portrait that was recently traced to a                                                   Home, Alameda,
private collection.25 (Fig. 9) In this painting,                                                California).

22
     A Girl with a Cat sold to Oscar Prior for 400 kro-   23
                                                               Romano D’Orsi 2014a, 253-54. A smaller copy was
     ner, PSK Regnskabsbogen (Accounts book) 1880,             done by Vincenzo Alfano: see Esposito 2011, 40-41.
     DHS, PSK Arkiv. PSK to Heinrich Hirschsprung,        24
                                                               Hornung 2002, 128-133; Saabye 2002, 122-125.
     Rome 6.4.1880, DHS, HH Arkiv, no. 722. Kokkin        25
                                                               Christensen 1923, no. 249. I am grateful to actor Joen
     2016b, 211, fig. 7.                                       Bille and Mrs Birthe Sliben, Copenhagen, for their in-
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                                     157

Nannina is shown holding a couple of the                      flower girl and is presumably ‘Fosca’s little
artist’s tubes of pigment. The situation is a                 model’, Nannina. (Fig. 11) Signed ‘P Fosca
brief, fleeting moment at the studio, giving                  80’, the bust may have been created earlier
the subject a far more relaxed, unofficial feel.              that year, meaning that this could be the exact
Here, the model is not posing for the painter.                same bust of an ‘Italian female’ that Krøyer
She is seen at an angle from behind; we can                   mentions even during his time in Sora, stating
barely make out her face, which remains                       that he is excited to see the work when he
shadowed, whereas her neck, her bare shoulder                 arrives in Naples (see p. 158). However, the
and the blouse are hit by the light. Engrossed                bust might just as well have been created
in examining the paints, she appears to have                  during Krøyer’s time in Naples. Fosca certainly
been observed without being aware of it. The                  worked on A Flower Seller (Una fioraia) while
depiction combines sensuous observation                       Krøyer was there. We know this because he
with deeper psychological insights. Krøyer
would often apply this way of observing a
model in subsequent works. He would have
been able to study similar subjects in the
works of the Dutch masters and Velázquez.
Most recently, he had seen, while visiting an
exhibition in Turin in June (see p. 162), a
painting by the Neapolitan painter Vincenzo
Caprile (1856-1936): The Dowry of Rita (La
dote di Rita), which has a striking similarity to
Krøyer’s study.26 (Fig. 10) Perhaps this was
how he ideally wanted to paint Nannina. The
painting was signed in the still-wet paint on
3 December, a few days before Krøyer left
Naples to return to Rome.

Fosca’s Nannina
That same year, Fosca sculpted an exquisite,
small terracotta bust in his studio. It depicts
a young girl with a scarf around her hair.
The sculpture has sustained damage over
the years, meaning that we now see only the
stalks of the roses that would once have been
a significant part of the right-hand side of the
composition. The model’s soft face with the
rounded cheeks, the hair underneath the scarf,
the smile playing around her lips, allowing a
glimpse of her teeth – all these aspects make
the bust convey a very vivid impression of
the young girl and her demeanour as seen in                Fig. 11. Pasquale Fosca, Bust of a Young Girl with Roses (Nan-
                                                           nina), 1880. Terracotta. H. 37 cm. Sign.: ‘P Fosca 80’. (The
the here and now, in a realistic single moment.            bust has sustained damage). Private collection. (Photo
She closely resembles Krøyer’s Neapolitan                  Rocco de Ciantis & figlio, Sora).

     valuable assistance in locating the current owners.          Reproduced in llustrazione Italiana 1880. Regarding
26
     Vincenzo Caprile: La dote di Rita. / Rita’s Dowry.           Krøyer’s time in Turin, see Saabye 2011, 58.
158                                            Marianne Saabye

later makes several references to the ‘fioraia’          The many subsequent letters often include
he did ‘back when you painted my portrait in             greetings from Nannina, who also wrote a few
Naples’. Perhaps this small bust with the roses          letters to Krøyer herself.
was on the artist’s modelling stand.27 Another
possibility is that the ‘fioraia’ mentioned by the       Pasquale Fosca’s artistic background in Naples
artist might be a preliminary work for Fosca’s           While still in Sora, P.S. Krøyer had described
statuette of a young woman carrying a basket             Pasquale Fosca in a letter to Heinrich
of flowers down a staircase; however, the first          Hirschsprung, making the following
known example of this sculpture is a bronze              observations:
version from 1882 (see p. 166). (Fig. 17)
    Sadly, the portrait that Krøyer painted                   Here in Sora I have made the acquaintance
of Fosca in his studio and went on to give                    of a very gifted young Neapolitan sculptor,
him as a gift is now lost. We know that                       Fosca. […] He has indicated that next year,
Fosca presented it to various visitors with                   he should like to exhibit in Copenhagen,
great pride; for example, it held a prominent                 showing an Italian woman he has sculpted
position when he threw a major party                          and which I shall see in Naples. If it is as
celebrating the opening of a new studio in the                good as I expect, seeing it at Charlottenborg
spring of 1881. On that occasion, its admirers                would be most pleasant indeed; he is
included the painter Domenico Morelli                         particularly skilled at the modelling and
(1826–1901), Fosca’s teacher and a key figure                 treatment of flesh and fabrics. His art is
on the Neapolitan art scene of the time. On a                 very much in the vein of the well-known
subsequent occasion, the writer and politician                Neapolitan Boy with a Fish by Gemito –
Ruggiero Bonghi (1826–95) also voiced his                     perhaps you are familiar with that work?
enthusiasm for the portrait.28 The painting                   He possesses a great deal of vitality and
ultimately suffered a dismal fate: in 1908,                   life force and might be a boon to our rather
prompted by an inquiry from Krøyer, Fosca                     ailing domestic sculpture with its realism
had to confess that pecuniary embarrassment                   and fresh outlook on nature.31
had compelled him to pawn it at one point –
and that problems arose when he later sought             At that point in time, Krøyer had no in-depth
to reclaim it. He now hoped to be able to                insight into Fosca’s work, but the two men
retrieve the portrait with help from his friend          must have exchanged ideas about art and felt
Vincenzo Simoncelli, a lawyer.29                         that they agreed on matters such as realism
    ‘Fosca’s little model’ was more than just            and the study of real life.
a model. A few years later, in 1883, Fosca                  Pasquale Fosca came relatively late to the
reported to Krøyer that Nannina had become               world of art. He had first attended a military
his ‘legitimate wife’ and that the couple were           academy, then medical school. In 1872, at
now the parents of an infant girl. The letter            the age of twenty, he began studying under
was written during a sojourn in Sora, where he           the Neapolitan sculptor Stanislao Lista
had just sculpted Mother and Child. The couple           (1824–1908) at the Istituto di Belle Arti in
went on to have another four children.30                 Naples. His early beginnings were not entirely

27
     PF to PSK, Naples 12.[6.?]1886 and London                he spent time in the company of the Nordic paint-
     [spring 1889], nos. 2723 & 2740.                         ers Christian Meyer Ross, Theodor Philipsen and
28
     PF to PSK, Naples 13.[spring].1881 and 29.7.1881,        Viggo Pedersen. Fosca relates that he has modelled
     nos. 2717 and 2719; Borrelli 1922, 299.                  a statue of Nannina with the child and intends to
29
     PF to PSK, Buenos Aires [1908/1909], no. 2746.           cast the piece in bronze.
30
     PF to PSK, Sora 2.8.1883, no. 2722. While in Sora   31
                                                              PSK to Heinrich Hirschsprung, Sora di Campagna
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                        159

without teething troubles, and things only hit       draw together. He had also invited Gemito.
their stride when he became a pupil of the           Other young students from the art academy
aforementioned painter Domenico Morelli,             met there, too – in a letter, Fortuny describes
who supported him, and when he was awarded           how the students came sailing out to the villa
first prize at an exhibition in 1878.32              from Naples, praising him in song and playing
    With Lista and the painters Morelli and          the mandolin.35
Filippo Palizzi (1818–99) as teachers, the              After his stay in Naples, Fortuny returned
Neapolitan art academy taught a range of             to Rome, where he lived and he had set up a
very talented young artists around this time;        famous studio filled with his rich collections.
artists that would go on to win international        Tragically, however, Mariano Fortuny died
prominence. The three sculptors Achille              unexpectedly just a few months later in
D’Orsi (1845–1929), Vincenzo Gemito                  November 1874, only 36 years of age.
(1852–1929) and Francesco Jerace (1853–                 In his own lifetime – and later through
1937) became leading figures within the 1870s        exhibitions of his works – Fortuny exercised
Verism movement in Italian sculpture, and            a remarkable influence on Spanish, French,
each in their own way, the painters Antonio          American and Nordic artists alike, including
Mancini (1852–1930) and Francesco Paolo              Krøyer (see p. 162). Art historians even speak
Michetti (1851–1929) represented new                 of what they call ‘Fortunyism’.36 The Spanish
departures in Italian art. In the 1870s, Mancini,    painter had a particularly prominent impact
Gemito and Michetti all exhibited their work         on the Neapolitan art scene. Those influenced
in Paris, and the French art dealer Goupil &         by him included the slightly other artists such
Cie strongly promoted Neapolitan artists.33          as Domenico Morelli, who was a close friend
    Fosca belonged to the same generation as         of Fortuny, and the marine painter Eduardo
these younger artists, and even though he had        Dalbona (1841–1915), but also younger
gotten off to a later start than they, he was of     painters such as Mancini and, especially,
course familiar with them and had followed           Michetti. Thus, winning Fortuny’s favour
their development and success. The fact that         and encouragement would have been a major
Fosca was considered talented is evident from        boon and confidence booster for Fosca.
an account provided by Nicola Borrelli.34 In
the summer of 1874, the Spanish painter              Fosca’s early realist works
Mariano Fortuny (1838–74), who was much              Fosca was firmly anchored in Neapolitan
admired and highly influential in his own            realism, to which he upheld his allegiance.
day, took a villa in Portici by the Gulf of          Even in 1899 he wrote: ‘I am, however, still
Naples. Upon visiting the academy one day            a Verist and am currently doing works in the
in the company of Morelli, he saw Fosca              Verismo vein …’.37
in the process of drawing after an ancient              Indeed, the titles of his exhibited works
statue. An enthusiastic Fortuny pronounced           from the earliest years of his career do
the drawing superior to the original, and he         point towards keen social commitment: A
supposedly returned to see Fosca work in             Compassionate Look (Un sguardo compassionevole),
the days that followed. He eventually invited        1873, Woman Praying (La Pia), 1874, The
Fosca to join him in Portici so that they could      Natural and Necessary Attitude. Foundling

     3.10.1880, DHS, HH Arkiv no. 730.               35
                                                          Davillier 1875, 125; Donate et al. 2003, 567.
32
     Borrelli 1922, 286-291; Saut 2014, 508.         36
                                                          González López 2003, 545-548; Saabye 2011b, 57–58.
33
     Serafini 2013.                                  37
                                                          PF to PSK, Naples 12.8.1899, no. 2728.
34
     Borrelli 1922, 286-288.
160                                                Marianne Saabye

                                                             of a range of writings on church history.
                                                             Comparison to the reference material shows
                                                             that the slightly melancholy, introspective air
                                                             of the ageing man is very ably represented.
                                                             (Fig. 12) A bust will usually show only the
                                                             sitter’s head and upper chest, but Fosca
                                                             included an additional realistic detail: one of
                                                             the cardinal’s hands, which would originally
                                                             have held a quill as a reference to Baronio’s
                                                             writings. Over the years, the fragile terracotta
                                                             bust has sustained considerable damage,
                                                             including the loss of the quill, but in 1908
                                                             Fosca cast a bronze copy of the bust which
                                                             shows the entire piece intact.39
                                                                 Another early portrait commission was a
                                                             Bust of Cardinal Siciliano di Rende, a task which
         Fig. 12. Pasquale Fosca, Cardinal Cesa-             several other artists had already failed to
         re Baronio (1538–1607), 1908. Bronze,               carry out to the patron’s satisfaction. Fosca
         cast after a terracotta model 1878.
         Chiesa di San Bartolomeo, Sora. (Pho-               proved successful, however, and the work was
         to: Rocco de Ciantis & figlio, Sora).               exhibited in Naples in 1880.40

                                                             Il Vecchietto
(Attitudine naturale e necessità. Trovatello), 1877,         Fosca’s early realistic works include The Old
Bust of an Old Sailor from Ischia (Testa di un vecchio       Man from Sora (Il vecchietto di Sora), which
marinaro d’Ischia), 1879.38 Looking further                  originally carried another name, Martino
ahead to his works from the early 1880s, the                 Samples the Wine (Martino saggia il vino). (Fig.
titles still contain hints of the social focus               13) The artist originally sculpted the statue
of realism: After the Wine Harvest (Dopo la                  in Sora in 1882 and makes a reference to it
vendemmia), 1884, Peasant from Sora (Contadino di            in a letter to Krøyer, suggesting that Krøyer
Sora) and Peasant Girl from Naples (Contadina di             would probably recognise the sitter, who
Napoli). The latter two busts were both done                 appears to have been one of Sora’s colourful
in marble and exhibited in 1884, but were                    older characters and very fond of drink.41 The
presumably sculpted by the artist at a notably               bronze statuette shows an old, fine-boned man
earlier date. None of these works are known                  wearing a small cap on his head, balancing on
today.                                                       a three-legged stool while holding a mug of
    Fosca’s interest in realistic depictions also            wine in one hand and the entire jug in the other.
manifests itself in the earliest known work                  His characteristic Ciociaria footwears attests to
by his hand, the posthumous portrait bust of                 his ties to the region. One variation of the
Cardinal Cesare Baronio (1538–1607), which he                statuette shows the man sitting on a barrel of
sculpted in 1878 on the basis of an older print.             wine. The sculpture displays a great deal of
Cesare Baronio was born in Sora, appointed                   realism, and its sitter would have felt entirely
cardinal in 1596 and won fame as the author                  at home among one of the farm workers seen

38
     Giannelli 1916, 584 .                                   41
                                                                  PF to PSK, Naples 12.[6.?]1886, Naples 12.8.1899
39
     Squilla 1963, 433-434, plates 44-45. PF to PSK,              and Naples [ca.1899], nos. 2723, 2728 and 2742.
     Naples 21.1.1908, no. 2730.                                  Giannelli 1916, 584; Borrelli 1922, 296 .
40
     Borrelli 1922, 289.
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                                161

                                                               It was first exhibited at Esposizione Generale
                                                               Italiana i Torino 1884 and later in 1887 at the
                                                               Esposizione Nazionale Artistica in Venice, where
                                                               it was, according to Fosca himself, a major
                                                               success with several copies sold. He also sold
                                                               a copy to the Spanish court at a later date.
                                                               However, he also reported that fake replicas
                                                               of the statuette had been produced.43
                                                                   Krøyer helped bring Il Vecchietto to
                                                               Denmark too. It was sold to Det Danske
                                                               Kunstindustrimuseum (now Designmuseum
                                                               Danmark), as is apparent from Borrelli’s report,
                                                               indirectly from Fosca’s correspondence and
                                                               from a letter that Krøyer sent, presumably just
                                                               around the turn of the century, to the museum
                                                               director Pietro Krohn, reminding the museum
                                                               on behalf of Fosca about the still-outstanding
                                                               payment of 150 lire, the price agreed for the
                                                               purchase. We can only assume that the money
                                                               was duly sent, for as late as 1908 Fosca writes
                                                               a letter to Krøyer, suggesting that Krøyer
                                                               might assist him on selling another bronze
                                                               statuette, Lotta, which could then be presented
                                                               alongside ‘il vecchietto sorano, which you
Fig. 13. Pasquale Fosca, The Old Man from Sora or Marti-       sold on my behalf to the aforementioned
no Samples the Wine / Il vechietto di Sora or Martino saggia   museum’.44 However, nothing came of this.
il vino, 1882. Bronze. H. 28 cm. Sign.: ‘P FOSCA. NA-          The statuette of the Old Man from Sora is no
POLI’, ‘Fonderia propria’. Private collection (Photo:
Rocco de Ciantis & figlio, Sora).                              longer at the museum. It was presumably sold
                                                               on or discarded, possibly in connection with
                                                               a subsequent critical review of the earliest
in Eilif Peterssen’s masterpiece Siesta in an                  acquisitions of the museum.45
osteria in Sora, 1880 (The National Museum,
Oslo), which stays true to its naturalist tenets               Krøyer and the Neapolitan art scene
in its unsentimental, characterful portrayal                   Little information can be found about the
of local agricultural workers.42 Fosca later                   extent of Krøyer’s interaction with the local
mentions that the statuette was a response to                  art scene in Naples during his approximately
the sculptor Constantino Barbella’s (1852–                     two-month stay. Fosca presumably sought
1925) statuettes of shepherds. Many of those                   to introduce him; for example, he mentions
pieces had a highly sentimental feel.                          that they visited a private collector together in
    The statuette won Fosca several prizes.                    order to see some paintings by the academy

42
     Kokkin 2016a, 27-32, fig. 22.                                  Buenos Aires [1908], no. 2743.
43
     PF to PSK, Naples 12.8.1899, no. 2728                     45
                                                                    According to information provided by Design-
44
     Borrelli 1922, 298. PF to PSK, Naples [ca. 1899],              museum Danmark, a number of early acquisitions
     no. 2742. PSK to Pietro Krohn, Bergensgade 10,                 were purged from the collection during Emil Han-
     Copenhagen [undated], Designmuseum Danmark,                    nover’s tenure as director.
     Copenhagen, Korrespondancearkivet. PF to PSK,
162                                             Marianne Saabye

professor Filippo Palizzi (1818–99).46 The                acquainted with works by some of the most
letters also make repeated references to a                important Neapolitan artists during his visit to
mutual acquaintance, Signor Nobile, who                   the fourth large and highly important national
sends greetings to Krøyer. Vincenzo Gemito                exhibition held in Turin in 1880.49 He visited
and Antonio Mancini were both in Naples                   the city en route for Paris at the recommendation
at this time, but the sources available remain            of fellow painter Laurits Tuxen and with
silent on this matter. However, there can                 the express objective of seeing Michetti’s
be no doubt that Krøyer met Domenico                      paintings. Among the Italian painter’s many
Morelli, who, in his capacity as Fosca’s                  works, his large, ground-breaking scenes from
teacher and mentor, remained in touch with                the Adriatic – full of bathing children, ships
his former pupil. In connection with a later              and sails – stood out with their brilliantly clear
letter urging Krøyer to return to Naples,                 light, distinctive freshness and unusual wealth
written in April 1881, Fosca wrote hopefully              of colour.
of the vast reunion celebration they would                    In a departure from Krøyer’s general
throw with ‘Morelli and the other greats’ who             practice, one of his sketchbooks contains a
enthusiastically awaited his return.47 Knowing            series of sketches copying down paintings
the identity of these ‘other greats’ would be             that he particularly wished to recollect.
useful, to say the least. Perhaps they were               Several of these motifs would appear to
some of the Neapolitan artists who stayed and             be clearly linked to Michetti. However, it
painted at the small fishing port and village of          transpires that Krøyer’s notes were done
Mergellina on the outskirts of Naples?                    on his return journey from Italy in 1881, at
    Through Fosca, Krøyer would have been                 which point he must have gone via Milan
able to gain insight into the Neapolitan art              to see the large Esposizione Nazionale, which
scene, which we may confidently assume to                 was set in Milan that year. At this exhibition,
have interested him given that he was already             Michetti exhibited no less than 35 relatively
a great admirer of several of the artists whom            small, sketch-like pictures under the common
Fosca had known and with whose works                      heading Studi dal vero a tempera.50 Concurrently
Krøyer had become acquainted at the Salons                with the Esposizione Nazionale, Milan was also
and the World Exposition in Paris 1878. They              home to a large representation of Fortuny’s
included the aforementioned Mariano Fortuny,              works, giving Krøyer the opportunity to see
whose paintings Krøyer had praised in 1878,               those too.
lavishly and in great detail, accentuating                    But let us return to the exhibition in Turin
Fortuny’s ‘wondrously enchanting imaginative              held the year before. At that show, Krøyer
colour’, the bright light and the wealth of               would have been able to view a range of
detail.48 Fosca was presumably also able to tell          important paintings by Giuseppe de Nittis
him about Francesco Paolo Michetti, another               (1846–84), including one of his major
native of Naples who had, however, relocated              masterpieces The Train Passes (Un treno che passa)
to the Adriatic coast several years previously.           and various scenes from Naples. Krøyer would
    In the spring, Krøyer had excellent                   also have been able to study marines from the
opportunities      for    becoming       directly         Gulf of Naples and scenes from the port of

46
     PF to PSK, Naples 9.6.[1881], no. 2736.                 Tommasi, Dopo l’acquazzone – paese, which was fea-
47
     PF to PSK Naples 20.4.1881, no. 2718.                   tured at the exhibition in Milan and reproduced in
48
     Regarding PSK’s familiarity with the works of For-      the exhibition catalogue. This verifies that Krøyer
     tuny and Michetti, see Saabye 2011b, 57-60.             was indeed in Milan: Esposizione Nazionale 1881, Sala
49
     Esposizione Nazionale 1880; Mimita Lamberti 1982,       IV, no. 6. The catalogue also features the 32 tempera
     37-54.                                                  studies by Michetti, 64-65, cat.nos. 35-67. (PSK’s cop-
50
     P.S. Krøyer Skitsebog no. 42, DHS. The sketchbook       ies include a sketch after Michetti’s La figlia di Jorio.)
     includes a drawing done after a painting by Adolfo
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                                 163

Mergellina done by artists such as Eduardo                  slumped down on the ground, a pickaxe
Dalbona (1841–1915) and Alceste Campriani                   between his splayed legs, his eyes empty.
(1848–1933); scenes full of Southern light,                 The sculpture is a quintessential portrayal of
clearly conveying the atmosphere of everyday                hopelessness – and the Latin title (Proximus
life in a fishing village.                                  tuus) accentuates the polemical point with its
    A darker counterpoint was offered by                    appeal to the Christian concept of charity. The
Domenico Morelli’s realistic and highly erotic              sculpture bears many similarities to a painting,
painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Il                much celebrated in its own day, by the French
tentazione di Sant’Antonio), 1878, (Galleria                painter Jules Bastien-Lepage: Hay Making
Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome), a major                    (Les Foins), 1877 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), in
work which garnered a great deal of attention.              which an exhausted peasant girl sits in a field
In her introduction to the exhibition Il Bello o            in a similar pose, staring vacantly ahead.52
Il Vero, Isabella Valente calls attention to how            However, D’Orsi’s sculpture and Morelli’s
the 1880 Turin exhibition played a prominent                depiction of Saint Anthony both have a
part in the overall turn of Italian Verism                  darker and rougher feel than one would find
towards an involvement in social issues – she               in the French painter. One might reasonably
speaks of ‘the birth of social art’, meaning                speculate that this exhibition helped prompt
the depiction of poverty and adverse living                 Krøyer to venture into the more sombre and
conditions.51 One of the most noteworthy                    serious realism evident in e.g. Italian Village
and modern works in this regard was the                     Hatters, on which he commenced work in
key work presented by Neapolitan professor                  Sora immediately after having visited Turin
Achille D’Orsi (1845–1929): the large bronze                and Paris, and in his subsequent depiction of
sculpture Proximus tuus, 1880 (Galleria                     a Roman campagnol (see p. 151).
Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome). (Fig. 14)                      Proximus tuus was not the only work
The sculpture depicts an emaciated labourer                 exhibited by Achille D’Orsi. He also showed
                                                            a bronze sculpture that evinced a different,
                                                            more poetic kind of realism: a young fisherboy
                                                            squatting over a large basket of fish, inspecting
                                                            the results of his labours.53 (Fig. 15) Called A
                                                            Posillipo in reference to the fishing community
                                                            in the Gulf of Naples, the sculpture shares
                                                            thematic similarities with Vincenzo Gemito’s
                                                            Young Fisherboy from Naples (Giovane pescatore
                                                            Napoletana), 1876, also known as The Fisherboy
                                                            (Il pescatorello), which Krøyer had seen in Paris
                                                            and mentioned to Hirschsprung (see. p. 158).
                                                            (Fig. 16) Gemito’s boy has just taken his catch
                                                            out from the small net tied around his waist
                                                            and now sits tensely on the rock, bent tautly
Fig. 14. Achille D’Orsi: Proximus tuus / Thy Neighbour,     backwards as he seeks to keep his wriggling
1880. Bronze. H. 106 cm. Sign.: ‘A.D’Orsi 1880’. (Pho-      prey close against his chest.54 The sculpture
to: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome. By con-
cession of Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali).   shows a specific, brief moment in time,

51
     Valente 2014.                                          54
                                                                 Puccio 2014, 276-277. Several versions of the
52
     The subject can be traced back to Jean-François             sculpture can be found in museums in Naples, Mi-
     Millet’s ‘Le vigneron’, 1869–70. See Hebert et al.          lan and Florence. The Bargello version is the black
     1975, cat. no. 182.                                         patinated version exhibited at the Paris Salon.
53
     Romano D’Orsi 2014b, 278.
164                                                Marianne Saabye

                                                              works with similar subject matter, and the
                                                              theme was subsequently picked up by several
                                                              Neapolitan sculptors.

                                                              The picture that was never painted
                                                              It is likely that these sculptures and Michetti’s
                                                              vast Adriatic scenes were at the back of
                                     Fig. 15. Achille
                                     D’Orsi, From Po-         Krøyer’s mind when one day, he came across
                                     sillipo / A Posillipo,   a subject he would have liked to treat. In late
                                     1880. Bronze. H.         November, he offers an in-depth description
                                     111 cm. (Illustra-
                                     tion from: Ricordo       of the scene in a letter to Eilif Peterssen. In the
                                     della Esposizione Na-    low morning sunlight, he had seen a number
                                     zionale di Belle Arti
                                     in Torino 1880, Mi-      of ‘brown magnificent human beings’ at the
                                     lan 1880).               beach, witnessing one of them ‘tie a small net
                                                              around his waist, cross himself and jump out,
                                                              dive, stay down for a long time, emerge again
                                                              with shells and then dive again’.55
                                                                  Having previously painted fishermen in
                                                              Hornbæk in Denmark, Krøyer had sought in
                                                              vain to find a similar subject in Brittany, and
                                                              when setting out for Naples, where he was to
                                                              paint an ‘Italian woman’ for Hirschsprung,
                                      Fig. 16. Vincen-
                                      zo Gemito, Young        he wrote that ‘he fisheries around Naples will
                                      Neapolitan Fisherboy    offer up suitable material for me’.56 However,
                                      or The Fisherboy /
                                      Giovane pescatore na-   time constraints no longer permitted him
                                      poletano or Pescato-    to embark on a large scene. Loath to give
                                      rello, 1877. Bronze.    up his plan to return to realise the picture
                                      H. 115 cm. Mu-
                                      seo Nazionale del       in his mind, he kept the option open in the
                                      Bargello, Firenze.      many letters sent from Rome to family and
                                      (Photo: Galleria
                                      degli Uffizi. Gabi-     friends during the winter and spring of 1881.
                                      netto Fotografico)      Eventually, Krøyer had to concede that after
                                                              four years of studies abroad, his financial
                                                              situation compelled him to return. Still, there
                                                              was no shortage of encouragement to return
evoking it in a lifelike fashion reminiscent of               to Naples from Fosca, and his entreaties
the aforementioned sculpture by Gesualdo                      were regularly renewed in the years that
Gatti. (Fig. 8) The theme was concerned with                  followed. For example, Fosca asked when
the depiction of young fisherboys, so-called                  Krøyer would come back to paint ‘beautiful
monelli, whose near-nudity made it possible to                pictures from the sea of fishermen catching
view them in the light of ancient classical art               fish, mullets, mussels, squids and octopus
while also making them an excellent naturalist                of every kind and so on. ...’.57 Fosca offers
subject. Gemito had already done several                      Krøyer the opportunity to stay at his home

55
     PSK to Eilif Peterssen, Naples 25.11.1880. Univer-       56
                                                                   PSK to HH, Sora di Campagna 3.10.1880, DHS,
     sity of Oslo Library, Brevsml. 209, no. 650. The              HH Arkiv no. 730.
     letter is quoted in its entirely in Saabye 2011b, 60.    57
                                                                   PF to PSK [1882?], no.2737.
P.S. Krøyer, Pasquale Fosca and the Neapolitan art scene                              165

in Naples and to avail himself of the various           Portraits
studios Fosca used in Posillipo and on the              In the early 1880s, Fosca appears to have
beach of Mergellina. However, Krøyer would              received quite a few commissions for portraits.
eventually create his paintings of fishermen            In December 1881 he sends a photograph of a
and beaches in Skagen in Denmark.                       bust of a ‘Girfield’, as he puts it. Fosca himself
                                                        describes the bust as ‘the best I have done so
Krøyer and Fosca’s correspondence and information       far’.59 He also did a bust of Signor Nobile,
about sculptures 1881–89                                with whom Krøyer was acquainted, and of
After Krøyer left Naples, the two artists               Signor Capiani, manager of the Hotel Royal at
engaged in regular correspondence up                    the port of Naples; Fosca had installed a new
through the 1880s. During this period, Fosca            studio in a building in the hotel’s garden.60
was based in Naples, but also spent time in                 That same year, 1881, Fosca received
Sora. He is known to have spent some time               an important commission for a bust of the
in Rome in 1881–82. He later went abroad,               influential cultural figure Ruggiero Bonghi
presumably making stops in Spain, and set out           (1826–95) – a scholar, writer and politician
via Paris to London where he, Nannina and               who was also minister of public affairs at
their children settled in 1888–89.                      the time. A native of Naples, Bonghi sat for
    Through the years, the two artists kept             Fosca once a fortnight. Upon completing the
each other informed about their own current             bust, Fosca sent a photograph to Krøyer, who
works, and the letters make it plain that they          praised his work in a later letter. Based on
often sent photographs of their works to                information provided in connection with an
each other. Fosca’s letters include references          exhibition, the date of the bust has hitherto
to numerous commissions and works,                      been set at 1904, but this correspondence
including pieces that have not previously been          shows that the bust was in fact created back
mentioned in the literature. Similarly, some            in 1881.61
of the information provided may serve as                    Through the acquaintance of Bonghi,
correctives to previous assumptions regarding           Fosca was given to understand that he might
the dating of his work.                                 do a portrait of the heir apparent, who was
    In 1881, for example, Fosca mentions two            summering in Naples with Margherita of
sketches done in preparation of allegorical             Savoy, queen consort of Italy (1851–1926).
representations. One featured a scene from              Sadly, however, the court left the city before
Dante’s Divine Comedy, depicting Amore e                the plans could come to fruition, but prior to
Intelligenza (Love and Wisdom), as symbolised by        this Fosca had conducted a long conversation
Dante standing on a globe, lovingly embracing           with the heir apparent at the palace, and
an eagle. The other work was a sketch for a             following that interview the queen’s cavaliere
monument, La Speranza d’Italia (The Hope of             di onore had joined Bonghi and the royal
Italy), personified here in the form of the heir        palace steward in visiting his studio. In
apparent, Vittorio Emanuele (1869–1947),                connection with these plans, Bonghi had
wearing military uniform and brandishing an             invited Fosca to stay with him in his house in
anchor resting on a roll of rope. However,              Rome in November in order to carry out the
no final commission was made for the latter             commission.62 In all likelihood Fosca went to
piece.58                                                Rome back in the autumn of 1881, creating

58
     PF to PSK, Naples 9.6.[1881], no. 2736.                 the bust is said to be housed at the Academia di
59
     PF to PSK, Naples 6.12.[1881], no. 2741.                Belle Arti, Naples, but it has proven impossible to
60
     PF to PSK, [Naples 1881], no. 2733.                     identify it there.
61
     PF to PSK, Naples 9.6.[1881] and 3.10.1881, DHS,   62
                                                             PF to PSK, Naples, 29.7., 3.10. and 23.10. 1881,
     nos. 2736 and 2720. Saut 2014, 508. In SAUR 2004        nos. 2719, 2720 and 2735.
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