Oil painting, 'An Italian Fiddler', attributed to Luigi di Giovanni, late 19th century

Set against a dark neutral background, a three-quarter profile portrait of a white-bearded old man holding a violin and wearing a brown flabby hat.

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886
Ref: Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, (Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990), p.xx.
Joshua Dixon (1811-1885), was the son of Abraham Dixon of Whitehaven and brother of George Dixon (who was head of the foreign merchants firm of Rabone Brothers in Birmingham 1883-98). Educated at Leeds Grammar School, and was deputy chairman of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company 1869-70. Died Winslade, near Exeter, 7 December 1885. Bequeathed all his collection of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings to the Bethnal Green Museum; they have since been transferred to the V&A. He also collected engravings, Japanese vases and panels, and bronze and marble sculpture.

Historical significance: This work depicts in three-quarter profile the bust of an old man holding a violin and wearing a floppy hat, evidently a street musician. The sitter's gaze establishes direct contact with the viewer. The brushwork is refined and smooth, with a dark brownish palette. This work was attributed to Luigi di Giovanni on the basis of its signature 'Giovanni' (lower right). Only a few works have been attributed to him, a similar example being The finding of Pietro Micca's Body, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Turin. Domenico Morelli's Portrait of Giacinto Gigante, 1859, in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino, Naples, has a similar technique.

Luigi di Giovanni (1856-1938) was born in Palermo and studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples under Domenico Morelli (1823-1901). He was an eclectic painter and spent the last forty years of his life in Palermo, where he taught at the local Accademia.

Realist paintings emerged in the 19th century primarily as a 'negation of the Ideal' (Gustave Courbet in Le réalisme, 1855). Social realism was influential in Naples, as is apparent from the works of Domenico (1815-1878) and Gerolamo Induno (1827-1890), Giacinto Gigante (1806-1876) and Domenico Morelli.

Luigi di Giovanni (1856-1938) was born in Palermo but attended the Institute of Fine Arts in Naples where he was the pupil of Domenico Morelli (1823-1901). He was an eclectic painter and spent the forty last years of his life in Palermo where he was a teacher in the local Accademia.

This painting is a good example of the new realist movement which developed in Italy particularly in Naples and Lombardy. It shows the three-quarter profile of an old man holding a violin and wearing a flabby hat, which probably defined him as a poor fiddler earning his living by playing his instrument from place to places. This picture illustrates well the new attention to social concerns in art during the second half of the 19th century.

1079-1886