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Lot description
(Livorno 1859-1933 Florence) Young lady with dog, ca. 1895, signed V. Corcos, oil on canvas, 108 x 85 cm, framed Provenance: European Private Collection; Sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 16 October 2016, lot 1117; Private Collection, Germany. Exhibited: La Seduzione Da Boucher a Warhol. Mostra Accademia Valentino Roma, 20 November 1992 - 14 February 1993. Catalogued and illustrated in: La Seduzione Da Boucher a Warhol. Catalogo della Mostra Accademia Valentino, Roma 1993, Fig. p. 57. After spending several formative years in Paris, where he collaborated exclusively with the renowned art dealer Adolphe Goupil, Vittorio Corcos established himself as one of the most sought-after portrait painters of fashionable society. By the mid-1890s, when the present work was most likely painted, he had already gained wide recognition for his refined portrayals of elegant women, combining technical finesse with an acute sensitivity to character and mood. In the present lot, Corcos presents a captivating young woman reclining on a bed, turning towards the viewer with a direct and subtly playful gaze. Dressed in a delicate ensemble of satin and tulle, she embodies the cultivated elegance and taste for luxury characteristic of the late nineteenth century. Her relaxed pose and confident expression lend the composition an intimate, almost conversational quality. The background is deliberately restrained, allowing the viewer’s attention to focus entirely on the graceful figure and her interaction with the small dog at her side—likely a terrier, a breed traditionally valued as an affectionate and loyal companion. The charming exchange between the woman and the animal introduces a note of liveliness and spontaneity, balancing the refined sophistication of the portrait. Behind the sitter appears a relief of Night by Bertel Thorvaldsen, an allusion that lends the composition a subtle classical resonance. Such thoughtful details, combined with Corcos’s polished brushwork and sensitive treatment of light and texture, exemplify the qualities that made his portraits of female beauty highly admired and widely sought after in his time.