Provenance:

Private Collection, Modena, Italy, until 2026.

Maria Carmela Gargallo is a wonderfully obscure but undeniably talented painter of the 19th century in southern Italy. She was the youngest daughter of Tommaso Gargallo, the Marchese di Castel Lentini—a celebrated intellectual and translator of Horace. Her noble roots must have afforded her a good education and her training as an artist. With her father’s death she became the Marchesa di Castel Lentini and is remembered most for her philanthropic works in Priollo Gargallo, a district of Siracusa. With her sister Anna she founded the Opera Pia Gargallo, an educational institution for impoverished children. A street was named after her in 1939.[1]

Few works of art by Gargallo have been identified. Prominently signed by the artist in gold along the right edge of the paper, this portrait of a young man is rendered with great sensitivity. Posed in three-quarter profile, his penetrating gaze meets that of the viewer. While he is likely a contemporary of the artist, his long hair and black cloak with a prominent white collar hearken back to portraits of the 17th century.

[1] Luigi Sebastiano Maria Carta, L’Agro Priolese dal 2000 a. C. al 2003 d. C., vol. 5: “1809–1850,” Priolo, 2006.