Elena Vecchi paintings - Victorio Corcos





Dreams (Sogni), 1896, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome.



The young lady is Elena Vecchi, a friend's daughter.  

He also painted portraits of Mussolini; actress Eleonora Duse, Countess Annina Morosini; Countess Nerina Volpi di Misurata; Carducci, Puccini and Mascagni; Amelie d'Oreleans, Queen of Portugal.

He probably painted 'Sogni' during the spring of 1896 and soon after presented it at the Esposizione Internazionale Artistica (International Art Exhibition) in Florence, where it was purchased for the gallery.

'Sogni' is the most famous work of Corcos, and it has now become famous on its own right,  often overshadowing its author.

The young woman portrayed here is Elena Vecchi, daughter of a friend of the painter, Jack La Bolina (pseudonym of Augusto Vecchi), a former naval officer and writer whose works were inspired by his sailing around the world.

The young woman spent her teenage years with Corcos' family and it is believed that she also had a relationship with the painter.

When the portrait first appeared at the exhibition in 1897, it impressed both the public and critics; it portrayed the image of a modern, confident young woman, which had often been represented in literature, but rarely in paintings.

Her crossed legs and indecorous pose were considered scandalous for the period, causing quite a stir when the painting was exhibited in Florence in 1896. 


Alla fontana (Le due colombe), 1896. 

The model for Corcos’s painting, which translates as At the fountain (The two doves), was the artist’s lover, Elena. She holds an umbrella suggestively across her lap and wears a hat adorned with the feathers of a dove — the second of the two birds referenced in the title.

The dove is traditionally a symbol of purity, as is the colour white, and there was great irony in Corcos’s reliance on both in his picture of Elena. Earlier in 1896, he had caused something of a furor when he exhibited another picture of her, Sogni (Dreams), at Florence’s Festival of Arts and Flowers. In it, Elena again looks directly and self-assuredly at us, giving nothing away. Her cross-legged pose was deemed particularly indecorous.

The relationship between Corcos and Elena was anything but pure — as one journalist put it, the lady had ‘warm thoughts and troubled desires’.




La Signora con Umbrellino, 1884


Lina Cavalieri, 1903

Lina was a famous opera singer. This pose is the same as JSS Madam X including the strap hanging off the shoulder.


An Elegant Player, 1933. 


Tennis anyone?

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