Little Red Cheeks

The earliest known public showing of this small panel came at the first Rome Biennale in 1921, 13 years after Fattori's death. The critic Guido Marangoni stopped in front of it and wrote about the delicious contrast between the full, flushed cheeks, like a ripe peach, and the sharp, cutting outline of the profile. Since then it has been shown in almost every major Fattori exhibition.

The girl is set in strict profile against an empty ground, in a dark green dress, with tawny hair. It is an intimate kind of portrait that was in fashion at the time, held together by the hard line of that profile. When exactly he painted it is still debated. Mario Tinti, writing on Fattori in 1926, placed it around 1875. Dario Durbé, preparing a Paris exhibition in 1978, moved it to about 1882, and that is the date the museum gives.