Provenance:

Private Collection, Mantua, Italy, until 2025.

Amanzia Guerillot was born in Milan, where her father had served as an accounting officer for the French army. Whether her birth name was Amanzia, as she became known, or Hamancie, as she signed our painting, is not known. In 1845 she met the painter Angelo Inganni, becoming first his model and then his student. As with her teacher, she specialized in vedute, exhibiting views of Milan and Brescia in the years following. Following the death of Inganni’s wife, Amanzia married Angelo, and the two worked together, moving to Gussago in the province of Brescia. A lovely portrait of Amanzia by her husband portrays her seated at an easel with framed vedute hanging on the wall behind her (Fig. 1). A sad corollary to the couple’s collaboration is that, as with many other female artists, her own paintings were confused with those of her husband (both would sign “A. Inganni”), leading to her becoming a largely overlooked figure.

Our painting of a King Charles Spaniel sitting atop a red pillow detailed with gold braid was painted when the artist was twenty years old. It is an especially charming portrait of an obviously beloved pet, painted from life, as the inscription confirms.