Rosina Mantovani Gutti 1851-1943

Born in 1851 in Rome, Rosina Mantovani Gutti received her first lessons from her father, the painter and fresco artist from Ferrara, Alessandro Mantovani, who had settled in the Eternal City in 1835. She later studied under the Nazarene painter Ludovico Seitz, director of the Vatican Pinacoteca, with whom she refined her drawing as well as certain graphic techniques such as pastel and watercolor.

From the 1890s onwards, she participated in major Italian and international exhibitions, initially favoring suggestive works of Symbolist inspiration, including the National Contemporary Art Exhibition in Palermo in 1892, the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Rome the following year, the exhibitions of the Société des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1894 and 1895, and the exhibition in Turin in 1899.

Shortly after the 1900 Exposition Universelle, she established her studio in Paris and gradually gained an important reputation as a fashionable portraitist, specializing in depictions of women and children. Her studio became a popular venue frequented by the European aristocracy and upper bourgeoisie. Rosina Mantovani Gutti painted portraits of Queen Margherita of Italy, the actress Eleonora Duse, Princesses Yolande and Mafalda of Savoy, and Olga of Greece, among others. Exhibiting regularly at the Henri Graves Gallery or with Marcel Bernheim, her works (described by the critic Arsène Alexandre as “very graceful[1]”), entered the collections of Spencer, Schneider de Firest, Murat, D’Araconcurt, Castellane, and Wanderbildt.

Depicting the charming figure of a young girl with blonde curls, the oil on canvas we present is directly related to the central figure of an important Symbolist pastel by Rosina Mantovani Gutti, now unlocated. Lithographed in 1900 by Franz Hanfstaengl (fig. 1), it is known to us only under the German title Blühendes Leben, which can be literally translated as Blooming Life, but it may have been exhibited at the Henri Graves Gallery in 1905 under the more poetic title La Chaîne de roses. Indeed, the description given by a critic seems to correspond to this work, highlighting “ideal Perugian figures of the most charming harmony and admirable drawing.[2]” The allusion to Perugino’s work can also apply to our bust portrait.

Beyond the tight framing, the idealized features of the young girl and her red silk embroidered dress evoke the portraits of the Italian Renaissance. The quickly suggested landscape in the background and the more ethereal hair, falling in golden curls over the model’s shoulders, recall English painting of the eighteenth century, from which Rosina Mantovani Gutti borrowed part of her aesthetic. At the 1905 exhibition, Louis Vauxcelles praised these works as “fantasies inspired by Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough.[3]” The celebrated Gil Blas critic concluded with evocative lines that appear to describe our painting perfectly, noting faces “brightened with a golden highlight in the hair, blue in the eyes, carmine on the lips[4].”

Fig. 1: Rosina Mantovani Gutti (1851–1943), Blooming Life, also known as La Chaîne de roses, 1900, pastel, location unknown.

[1] Alexandre, Arsène, « La Vie Artistique – les expositions », Le Figaro, 24 May 1905, p. 6.

[2] Bal, Georges, « Exposition des oeuvres du London Sketch Club », The New York Herald, 3 May 1905, p. 5.

[3] V., L. [Vauxcelles, Louis], « Notes d’art – Peintres étrangers », Gil Blas, 7 May 1905, p. 1.

[4] Ibid.