(Masi 1854–1929 San Remo)
La Coda del Diavolo, signed F. Zonaro, oil on canvas, 79.5 x 137.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Germany, for three generations.

Exhibited:
Esposizioni Riunite e II Esposizione Triennale di Brere, Castello Sforzesco, Mailand, 6 May - 5 October 1884;
III Fine Art and Art Trade Exhibition, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Barcelona, 1896;
Esposizione delle Belle Arti di Roma, 1896;
Hereké Imperial Factory, Grand Rue de Péra, December 1906;
Studio of Fausto Zonaro, Akaratler, Constantinople, 1908, no. 5 (room E, Paintings executed in Italy).

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Rodolfo Falchi, Ubaldo Spigno, Le tre stagioni pittoriche di Fausto Zonaro,
Torino 1993, no. 7;
Osman Öndes, Erol Makzume, Ottoman Court Painter Fausto Zonaro, Istanbul 2002, p. 69;
Erol Makzume, Cesare Mario Trevigne, Fausto Zonaro, Abdülhamid’in Hükümdarliginda Yirmi Yil. Fausto Zonaro Hatiralan ve Eserleri, Istanbul 2008, p. 97;
Erol Makzume, Cesare Mario Trevigne, Fausto Zonaro, Twenty years under the reign of Abdülhamid. The Memoirs and Works of Fausto Zonaro, Istanbul 2011, p. 83;
Erol Makzume, The Sultan’s Italian Court Painter Fausto Zonaro, Florence 2021, p. 173.

A certificate issued by Prof. Cesare Mario Trevigne, 3 June 2023, Florence, is available upon request.

We are grateful to Erol Makzume for kindly confirming the authenticity on the basis of the original.

We are grateful to Valerie Wadsworth-Falchi for her scholarly advice.

Fausto Zonaro showed great artistic talent from a young age and, with the consent of his parents, began his training at the Technical Institute in Lendinara and later at the Cignaroli Academy in Verona. He was called up to the army just as his talents began to flourish. He went to Venice after his military service, where he earned his living selling his paintings to tourists. He moved to Naples in 1878 in the hope of boosting his artistic career and eventually studied in Rome from 1880 to 1881, where he improved and perfected his painting technique. After a somewhat restless period and a brief stay in Paris in 1888, where he became acquainted with the Impressionist avant-garde, he opened a small art school and studio in Venice. This represents the turning point in Zonaro’s career, when he met his future wife Elisa (Elisabetta) Pante, one of his students. Inspired by the orientalist travel books of Edmondo de Amicis and Théophile Gautier, the young couple decided to set off for the capital of the Ottoman Empire to try their luck. Before settling in Istanbul in 1890, Fausto Zonaro took part in national and international exhibitions, showing his works between 1883 and 1890 in Rome, Milan, Turin, Venice and Brera, as well as Vienna and Paris.

The present lot is a major work from Fausto Zonaro’s early creative period in Italy and dates from the second half of the 1880s. It depicts a scene from a popular children’s game played by Italian country folk: the strongest and tallest girl joins the head of a line of girls, each holding on to the dress or apron of the playmate in front of her. The girl at the head of the chain must now defend the others from the taunts of the “devil”, another player, with outstretched arms. The latter moves quickly, freely and unexpectedly whirling from left to right to catch the last link in the chain. Thus the game proceeds amid much shouting and laughter until finally the last girl in the chain is caught. Fausto Zonaro transfers this lively and animated scene to the canvas and realistically renders the graceful yet modest girls. The figure at the head of the chain, a pretty girl with wild curls tousled by the wind, looks boldly at the “devil” who waits for a minute of her adversary’s inattention to steal from her. The other girls watch their adversary’s movements intently, waiting for the right moment to save themselves from falling into the enemy’s hands. This moment does not seem contrived or artificial, but authentic and true to life. The cheerful composition of the girls in their summer garb documents Zonaro’s skill as a draughtsman, which can be seen in the preliminary drawing that emerges from infrared reflectography. The lightness and movement of the garments as well as the individual facial expressions, especially around the eyes, were prepared by the artist with quick strokes on the canvas.

If we take a closer look at this painting, it becomes clear why the artist was particularly attached to it and why it found its way from Italy to Istanbul alongside “Dopo il gioco - After the Game” (Auction, 19th Century Paintings, 20 April 2010, lot 82), which shows the girls resting in the meadow. Both were intended by the artist as a kind of diptych and now the present work has been rediscovered in a German private collection. This masterpiece, which Fausto Zonaro himself considered the most successful and representative work of his early creative period, was lost in 1910 when he returned to Italy from Istanbul with his family. “Coda del Diavolo”, last exhibited in 1908, probably remained in the artist’s possession, and would also have returned to Italy with him if his friend Prince Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin had not paid a visit to his studio shortly before his departure. Zonaro then sold this heartfelt piece and other paintings to the prince. The Sultan’s son wrote: “It is with great pleasure that I note that Monsieur Zonaro is today, without exception, the most important artist in the Orient. I am very happy, for I have acquired some of his finest paintings, which I consider masterpieces.”
In all probability, this painting came to Europe with Prince Burhannedin, where it has now resurfaced in a German private collection. It is all the more remarkable that we can once again experience this painting in its full splendour - a true sensation!