Franz Antonio Brentano

(1840 - 1888)

The work, enriched by an Empire frame in wood and gilded tablets, is part of a particularly successful branch of the Brentano production, characterized by the choice of pleasant subjects with a suggestive exotic flavor. The depicted girl - a "Pompeian flower seller" as indicated by the rather dated label on the back of the painting - represents a privileged theme with which the artist has often confronted himself, as evidenced by the numerous paintings depicting gypsies, Turks, Gypsies, Hungarians and in general any subject could have an evocative power with respect to the specificity of a place (there are also paintings by Brentano that portray Neapolitan or, as in this case, Pompeian girls). In the painting presented here, as in the previous lot of similar sensitivity and subject and as in a large part of the painter's work, the influence of Pre-Raphaelite research is recorded.

Signed lower left: "A. Brentano".