(Venice 1841–1917 Paris)
Portrait of a Lady in Profile, signed Zandomeneghi, pastel on cardboard, 41 x 32 cm, framed

Provenance:
Durand-Ruel, no. 7425, Paris;
Angelo Sommarugo, Paris;
Acquired from the above - Private Collection, Italy, for two generations.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Enrico Piceni, Zandomeneghi, Bramante ed., Milan, 1967, no. 488;
Enrico Piceni, Zandomeneghi, Bramante ed., Milan 1991, no. 488;
Fondazione Enrico Piceni, Federico Zandomeneghi catalogo generale - Nuova edizioni aggiornata e ampliata, Libri Scheiwiller ed., Milan, 2006, p. 36, no. 776.

Federigo Zandomeneghi’s conversion to Impressionism happened gradually under the influence of Degas. Zandomeneghi exhibited with the Impressionists in 1879 and in the 1880s at the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth Impressionist exhibitions. In the 1880s he lived in Paris in Rue Tourlaque near Renoir, Suzanne Valadon and Toulouse-Lautrec. He quickly integrated into the avant-garde painter’s group that gathered at the Café de la Nouvelle-Athène. He was launched by the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in the early 1890s, who bought the exclusive rights to Zandomeneghi’s works, allowing him to paint freely without financial constraint. He became so prolific that he never returned to Italy.
Zandomeneghi excelled in the portrayal of the French bourgeoisie. He rarely included any masculine presence in his work. Profil de femme, a girl in profile, or partially turned profile, is a motif found in many of Zandomeneghi’s works. The delicate harmony of orange, blue and red, is uniquely his own.