Ca' d'Oro Gallery, Rome (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection (acquired in 1973 and sold: Bonhams, London, June 19, 2012, lot 23)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Work is in very good condition. The board is sound. There are some very minor frame abrasions at upper right edge. There is a pentiment in the figure's right leg, where the artist altered the composition. Under UV light, the varnish in this area fluoresces slightly, as does uneven varnish in the background, but no inpainting is apparent. Otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"What I hear is worth nothing; there is only what I see with my eyes open and, even more, what I see with them closed." —André Breton, Le Surréalisme et la peinture, Paris, 1928, p. 38

The celebrated figure of de Chirico's Trovatore series is a re-imagination of the artist himself; an embodiment of the melancholic poet trapped in an enigmatic reality. Flanked by a pair of Renaissance-style loggia, the artificial mannequin creates an unsettling feeling particular to both de Chirico and the Surrealists he inspired. "The black lines on the mannequins' heads, which in the earlier versions are conjoined around the mouth area and later around the area of the eye, are metaphysical symbols indicating the possession of a superhuman voice and vision, by which is implied that transcendent, prophetic utterance and the superior vision bestowed, according to Greek legend, by Mnemosyne, goddess of Memory and mother of art, upon poets whom she deprived of the ordinary sight of mortals" (Paolo Baldacci, De Chirico: The Centenary sculptures, Turin, 1995, p. 79). Since first conceiving Il Trovatore in 1917, de Chirico went on to produce what was later labeled “the great mannequin series,” to which he would return as part of his neo-metaphysical phase in the latter half of the twentieth-century (see fig. 1).

The faceless Trovatore, constructed from a collage of wood and cloth, originated in the collaboration between de Chirico, his brother Alberto Savinio and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (see fig. 2). "The Italian critic, Raffaele Carrieri, has suggested that the painter's interest in this curious subject matter was aroused by a play, Les chants de la mi-mort, written by de Chirico's brother and published in Apollinaire's magazine, Les soirées de Paris, for July-August, 1914. The drama's protagonist is a 'man without voice, without eyes or face'" (James Thrall Soby, Giorgio de Chirico, New York, 1966, p. 97).

De Chirico himself confirmed that this play was his inspiration when he wrote: "the idea of these large heads shaped like an egg, which one also sees in my standing mannequins of the metaphysical type, came to me from seeing the maquettes designed by my brother who used the pseudonym Alberto Savinio” (Elizabeth Cowling & Jennifer Mundy, On Classical Ground: Picasso, Léger, de Chirico and the New Classicism, 1910-1930 (exhibition catalogue), London, Tate Gallery, 1990, pp. 81-82).

Ultimately, in this fashion, the figure of the mannequin, popularized through De Chirico and the Metaphysical painters, was part of a return to the grandeur of classical Italian art, one which attempted to question the value of objective perception and reveal the enigma of daily life.





The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico.