Francesco Paolo Michetti, "la Pastorella", Pastel On Paper, Signed, Late 19th Century

Francesco Paolo Michetti, "La Pastorella", pastel on paper, signed, late 19th century

Beautiful pastel on cardboard by the famous Italian painter Francesco Paolo Michetti, the work in our possession is the sketch of the famous canvas from 1887 depicting the same shepherdess with a branch (in the photo).

Signed lower right

The work depicting a shepherdess expresses a return to the pastoral, rural and idyllic origins that above all characterized the first phase of Michetti's work, while always maintaining a constant attention, even literary, for the peasant world, village life and holidays religious women from Abruzzo. 
Rural Abruzzo, with its still uncontaminated nature, was always his main source of inspiration. Already in 1872 and then in 1875 he exhibited his works at the Paris Salon, but he was acclaimed, reaching definitive international fame, in 1877, when he exhibited the sensational canvas of Corpus Domini (purchased by Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany) in Naples. . This painting is among the most famous masterpieces of the entire nineteenth-century Italian panorama

Measurements: In frame H 64.5 x W 53.5 / Paper H 35 x W 26 cm

Biography
He was an Italian painter and photographer. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, where he was a student, with Edoardo Dalbono, of the master Domenico Morelli. In 1872 and then in 1875 he exhibited his works at the Paris Salon, but achieved definitive international fame in 1877, when he exhibited the Corpus Domini canvas in Naples. Like many painters of the time, since 1871 he has been interested in photography, initially only as a procedure for studying the subjects of his paintings from life, then also as a new and autonomous means of expression. The beginning of his friendship with Gabriele D'Annunzio dates back to 1879; he is the inspirer and initiator of an artistic cenacle of national importance which takes its name from him and which after 1885 begins to meet in the convent of Santa Maria del Gesù in Francavilla al Mare, purchased by the painter and today known as the Michetti Convent. In 1909 he was appointed senator of the Kingdom of Italy.