Giuseppe de NITTIS (Barletta, 1846 - Saint-Germain-en-Laye,... Lot 101

Giuseppe de NITTIS (Barletta, 1846 - Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1884) Lake Lucerne from Rigi-Kulm Panel Signed and dedicated in the lower right corner: "to Madame A. Daudet / De Nittis". On the back, inscription in black pencil: "Giuseppe de Nittis / Gersau (Switzerland) / 1882 / Travels with Mr. and / Mrs. Alphonse Daudet / (see Goncourt's journal)" 27 x 41 cm Provenance : - Madame Alphonse Daudet, née Julia Allard (Paris, 1844-Changé, 1940). - Private collection. Bibliography: - Sutter Laumann, Un nouveau roman d'Alphonse Daudet, Tartarin sur les Alpes, La Justice, 12 December 1885, p. 2. - Alphonse Daudet, Marchand de bonheur, Paris, Nelson, 1932, p. 73. After a first stay in Paris in 1867, during which he met the merchant Adolphe Goupil, Giuseppe de Nittis settled in France the following year. He became friends with Degas and Manet, and in 1874 proclaimed his break with "official painting". His early landscapes already show a search for light and dissolution of forms. Close to the Impressionists, Nittis exhibited from the first manifestation of the group and acquired several works by Monet himself. However, his art differs from that of the Impressionists: he combines his interest in modern life and urban landscapes with scenes of social life: his views of London streets, Parisian boulevards or racecourses are treated with a skilful mixture of pictorial freedom and a taste for detail. Our painting was done during a trip by the de Nittis couple in the company of Alphonse Daudet and his wife, to whom the work was offered as indicated in the dedication. The artist met the Daudet couple in 1881 through Edmond de Goncourt. In 1885, during the publication of Alphonse Daudet's new novel, Tartarin sur les Alpes, the journalist from La Justice was received in the writer's salon, which he described: "On the walls, two or three paintings: an aspect of Lake Lucerne, taken from Rigi-Kulm; a study of extraordinary truth, by Nittis" (Sutter Laumann, Le nouveau roman d'Alphonse Daudet Tartarin sur les Alpes, La Justice, December 12, 1885, p. 2). There is another painting representing the same point of view and of similar dimensions that the artist dedicates to his wife. (Monti e Laghi, 1881, 27 x 41 cm, oil on canvas, Barletta, Pinacoteca Comunale).