Durand-Ruel & Cie, Paris (no. 378; pℱurchased from the artist on 30 November 1900); thence by descen🃏t

Enrico Piceni, Federico Zandomeneghi, Milan, 1967, no. 128, catalogued & illustrated (as La toilette)

Enrico Piceni, Federico Zandomeneghi, Milan, 1991, no. 128, catalogued & illustrated (as La toilette)

Fondazione Enrico Piceni, Federico Zandomeneghi, catalogo generale, Milan, 2006, p. 295, no. 433, catalogued & illustrated (as La toilette)

Paris, Galeries Durand-Ruel, Zandomeneghi, 1967, no. 13  

Zandomeneghi is in many ways the 'forgotten Impressionist', having exhibited at four of the Impressionist group exhibitions in the 1880s. Born in Venice in 1841, he moved to Florence in 1862 and joined the Macchiaioli group with other notable Italian painters including Silvestro Lega and Giovanni Boldini. Encouraged by Diego Martelli, the art critic who championed the Macchiaioli, Zandomeneghi travelled to Paris in 1874 to view the Salon. The trip proved to be life-changing: 🐷what was planned as a short trip turned into a 43-year stay, until the ar༒tist’s death.

Capt༒uring a tender moment between mother and daughter, this pastel has close affinities to the work of Zandomeneghi's friend Edgar Degas. It was probably from his friend that Zandò (as he came to be known by friends) developed his love of pastels and his compositional choices of women and girls observed unawares in intimate surroundings. He also admired the art of Mary Cassatt and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, whose domestic scenes of women and children had a deep influence. Appreciating the artist’s talent, dealer Paul Durand-Ruel bought the exclusivity to Zandomeneghi’s works, allowing his protégé to work freely without financial constraint and to develop his own aesthetic.