(Milan 1859–1932)
Portrait of Ignazio Grün with Violin, 1891–94, signed E. Longoni, on the reverse exhibition label Società per le belle arti 1982, oil on canvas, 158 x 82 cm, framed

Provenance:
European Private Collection.

Exhibited:
Società per le Belle arti ed esposizione permanente, Palazzo Sociale, Milano Mostra di Emilio Longoni, 24 February-4 April 1982, cat. no. 31.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Giovanna Ginex, Emilio Longoni, Catalogo Ragionato, Federico Motta ed.,
p. 182, no. 118.

This portrait of the industrialist Ignazio Grün is an early highlight of Emilio
Longoni’s oeuvre and is dated around 1890. It marks the beginning of a phase in which Longoni’s style began to develop increasingly in the direction of Divisionism. Indeed, he is one of the earliest representatives of this new style. Longoni subsequently turned his focus primarily to landscape painting, which he reshaped in a poetic, almost dematerialised manner.
Ignazio Grün, who came from a Hungarian industrialist family, was one of the young artist’s earliest patrons and collectors. He did not only have himself portrayed by Longoni: he also commissioned portraits of his wife Maddalena Monge Grün (catalogue raisonné no. 119) and his two children Giulio and Tonino (catalogue raisonné no. 135). The portraits of Ignazio and Maddalena are conceived as an imposing pair in upright format, whereas the portrait of a child takes an oval, transversal form. Green’s passion for music is evident in the violin and bow he is holding in his hands. In fact, he was the first amateur violinist in the orchestra at the Teatro della Scala in Milan. Longoni was often a guest at the Grün family’s estate in Locate Triulzi and was a friend of the family.