Giacomo Francesco Cipper (1664-1736) Portrait Of A Painter. Self-portrait?

Giacomo Francesco Cipper (1664-1736) Portrait of a painter. Self-portrait?

Re-lined canvas measuring 72 cm by 57 cm
Old 17th century frame measuring 87 cm by 72 cm

This surprising painting is attributed to Giacomo Francesco Cipper, it represents a painter smoking a pipe, holding a brush against his chest with his right arm. At the bottom of the composition its palette and other brushes. The painter (self-portrait?) is dressed in rags, he smiles ostensibly. This painting is actually not that surprising when you look at this artist's output. He created numerous portraits of ordinary people, always dressed poorly, often with holes in the fabric but with a big smile on display.

Giacomo Francesco Cipper (1664-1736)

Giacomo Francesco Cipper known as “Il Todeschini” (literally the little German) (born around 1664 in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, then in the Holy Roman Empire and died on October 17, 1736 in Milan) is a Italian painter of Austrian origin. Giacomo Francesco Cipper was baptized on July 15, 1664 in Feldkirch, under the name Franz Jakob Zippeis. His father, Hans Caspar Zipper, came from a wealthy family in Feldkirch and exercised various professions during his life: after having assumed responsibility for an export counter on behalf of merchants from Feldkirch, he managed a private school in Brunnenfeld and in 1678 he became a cattle dealer and then a butcher. Cipper's mother Eva Rudolfin, originally from Bludenz, died in 1673, when Giacomo Francesco had not yet reached the age of 9. No testimony allows us to know where and how his years of apprenticeship took place. Pigler mentions on this subject the name of a Viennese painter, Jacob Zieper. The presence of Giacomo Francesco Cipper, on the other hand, is attested in Milan from 1696. He was then around thirty years old and lived in Casa Carcani, in the parish of San Vito al Pasquirolo (en). He married Giulia Francesca, daughter of the notary Carlo Federico Galdone. Ten children were born from his marriage. Giulia Francesca died in 1735, Giacomo Francesco Cipper on October 17, 1736. He is buried in the Basilica of Saint Stephen the Greater.