(1854–1929)
“La Coda del Diavolo”, after the eponymous painting (now lost) by Fausto Zonaro, signed R. Conegliano, oil on canvas, 81.5 x 129 cm, framed, (W)

Provenance:
Galerie Stern, Dusseldorf, 18 March 1933, lot 100;
Private Collection Germany.

Compare:
Rodolfo Falchi, Ubaldo Spigno, Le tre stagioni pittoriche di Fausto Zonaro,
Turin 1993, ill. 7 and 8.

We are grateful to Valerie Wadsworth-Falchi for her scientific assistance.;
The present lot is a copy of the now lost work ‘La Coda del Diavolo’ by Fausto Zonaro. The original is documented by a black and white photograph by Elisa Zonaro, which is preserved in the archive of the Comune di Masi near Padua, Zonaro’s birthplace. The painting depicts cheerfully light-hearted girls in neat summer clothes, probably playing a popular game of catch: the challenge is for the first person in the row of people to catch the last one as fast as possible without creating a break in the queue. Two boys stand aside, watching. It is the counterpart of Zonaro’s ‘After the Game’ or ‘Dopo il gioco’, which was successfully auctioned on 20 April 2010, lot 82, at the Dorotheum. In this example, the girls stretch out in the meadow after a strenuous game.
Fausto Zonaro is likely to have greatly appreciated these 1886 and 1887 works, as he took them to Constantinople and kept them in his house during his 19-year stay. They are also listed in his last local exhibition in 1908-1909. After returning to Italy, the crates that included some of his paintings were exposed to rain for days at the Port of Naples. As a result, some of the paintings were destroyed irreparably. One of these boxes might have included the original ‘La Coda del Diavolo’. Yet, there is still the hope that it will be found again, as was luckily the case with its counterpart, ‘Dopo il gioco’.
In the present picture, the unknown artist R. Conegliano reduces the number of girls in the line from the original twelve to nine, so that the last two are no longer shown. The composition reflects the dynamics of the game of catch and conveys the charming, cheerful mood of the painting.