Seated Man Reading

Florence had been the capital of the Kingdom of Italy for two years when Tito Conti painted this, and the young painters of the city were all working within a few streets of one another. Giovanni Boldini, born the same year as Conti in 1842, had come from Ferrara in 1862 and stayed until 1870, and while most of the Macchiaioli around him worked outdoors he kept painting people indoors. The Italian state catalogue entry for this canvas places it in that company.

It is a studio interior, and it is small, 29.5 by 40 centimetres. Across the right side Conti wrote in cursive that the picture was for his friend Dumini, and the year below, 1867.

The man in the chair has no name in the museum's record, which calls the work exactly what it shows, a seated man reading.