Portrait of Camilla Lomellini Tabarca
Date: 1830–35
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 160 × 137 cm
The large, previously unseen painting depicts a young and attractive noblewoman sitting in a shady park. Next to her is a gushing fountain, while in the sunny background of a stretch of water stands a small Greek temple partly covered by a weeping willow. The noblewoman, with a pensive gaze and a faint smile, wears a white dress with puffed sleeves covered with tulle that reveals a precious gold and sapphire bracelet on her forearm. The dress is cinched at the waist with a pink belt with a buckle, while a matching bow embellishes the ruff. This fashion, as also highlighted by the hairstyle gathered into two high bands of curls, was in vogue in the 1830s. The style, the skill of the brilliant brushstrokes, adept at rendering the softness of the flesh, the material quality of the transparent veil, the iridescence of the satin and the lustre of the hair leave no doubt as to the author of the painting.
The work is one of the best products of the Romantic painter Giuseppe Molteni, the star of the Braidensi exhibitions, who in 1828 burst onto the Milanese scene, challenging the primacy hitherto held by Francesco Hayez in portraiture. His portraits, rich in iconographic details in keeping with the contemporary Biedermeier style, seduced the aristocratic clientele who loved to be portrayed in their luxurious clothes or against the backdrop of their homes.
The lady is identified as Camilla Lomellini Tabarca (1797-1850) from Genoa, who in 1815 married Pompeo Litta Visconti Arese (1785-1835) from Milan. Their union produced the famous collectors Antonio (1819-1866) and Giulio Litta (1822-1891). The painting is probably to be recognised in the “Female portrait with country background, half-length, commissioned by Count Giulio Litta” presented at the Braidense exhibition in 1830. The garden background seems to evoke in an imaginative way the park of Villa Litta in Lainate, with its 16th-century nymphaeum and numerous fountains and water features. As Giorgio Picozzi kindly informed me, the painting was in fact commissioned by Pompeo's uncle, the admiral and diplomat Giulio Renato Litta (Milan, 1763-1839), who had been living in St Petersburg since 1796, in gratitude for the hospitality he received at Villa Litta during his brief return to Milan from Russia in 1830. In that year, Giuseppe Molteni presented twenty-four portraits at Brera, including another “small half-length portrait” for Giulio Litta. A second version of the same subject still exists in the family's possession. Camilla must have been satisfied with the result, as in 1843 she commissioned Molteni to paint a portrait of her younger son Giulio (now preserved in the art collection of the Ospedale Maggiore), reserving that of her eldest son Antonio for Eliseo Sala. There are two other portraits of Camilla Lomellini Tabarca, one contemporary with the Genoese painter Matteo Picasso (1794-1879), which shows her inside a palace, sitting on a dormeuse (formerly in Milan, Ospedale Maggiore), and a posthumous one by Eliseo Sala, dating from 1851 (Milan, Museo di Milano). Both confirm the correct identification of the lady in question and, at the same time, allow us to appreciate Molteni's skill in softening the features of his models. The refined and brilliant colour palette also makes up for some compositional inaccuracies, such as, in the case of our painting, the somewhat artificial pose and the unlikely height of the grassy cushion on which Camilla rests her elbow.
Provenance
Collection of Villa Litta, Linate, nr. Milan, Italy (Collection of Borromeo Arese)