Sporting tattered tights and juggling rings, this ragamuffin entertainer reflects Mancini’s fascination with the picturesque realm of street performers. The canvas, the first of several that he devoted to acrobats in the 1870s, was probably inspired by the Cirque Guillaume, a French troupe that toured his hometown of Naples. Not long after Mancini created this work, he travelled to Paris, eager to make a name for himself in the capital of the art world. This painting, presented to The Met in 1892, was the first by the artist to enter a museum.
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Credit Line:Bequest of Elizabeth U. Coles, in memory of her son, William F. Coles, 1892
Object Number:92.1.62
Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): A. Mancini 1872
Elizabeth U. Coles, New York (until 1892)
Williamstown, Mass. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. "Italian Paintings, 1850–1910, from Collections in the Northeastern United States," October 30–December 5, 1982, no. 42.
Baltimore. Walters Art Gallery. "Ottocento: Romanticism and Revolution in 19th-Century Italian Painting," November 14, 1992–January 3, 1993, no. 90 (as "The Circus Boy").
Worcester Art Museum. "Ottocento: Romanticism and Revolution in 19th-Century Italian Painting," January 16–February 28, 1993, no. 90.
Pittsburgh. Frick Art Museum. "Ottocento: Romanticism and Revolution in 19th-Century Italian Painting," March 13–April 25, 1993, no. 90.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Antonio Mancini: Nineteenth-Century Italian Master," October 20, 2007–January 20, 2008, unnumbered cat. (pl. 4).
Rovigo. Palazzo Roverella. "L'Ottocento Elegante: Arte in Italia nel segno di Fortuny 1860–1890," January 29–June 12, 2011, unnumbered cat. (p. 124).
Harry B. Wehle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Italian, Spanish, and Byzantine Paintings. New York, 1940, p. 303, ill., calls it a conservative work produced early in Mancini's career.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 63.
David B. Cass and John Wetenhall Russell Panczenko inItalian Paintings, 1850–1910, from Collections in the Northeastern United States. Exh. cat., Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, Mass., 1982, pp. 12, 14, 73, ill.
Roberta J. M. Olson. Ottocento: Romanticism and Revolution in 19th-Century Italian Painting. Exh. cat.Florence, 1992, pp. 230–33, no. 90, ill. (color), identifies the boy as Mancini's favorite model, Luigiello Gianchetti; discusses the theme of the saltimbanco in Mancini's oeuvre; tentatively proposes that this might be the painting exhibited in the Salon of 1877 and/or the Exposition Universelle of 1878 as "Le petit saltimbanque" and "Le saltimbanque," respectively.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 142, ill.
Ulrich W. Hiesinger. Antonio Mancini: Nineteenth-Century Italian Master. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2007, pp. 12, 14, 28, 32, 72, 126, colorpl. 4, asserts that this picture was inspired by the Cirque Guillaume, a French traveling circus in Naples; notes that it was the first work by the artist to enter a public collection in the United States or Europe.
Rosalind McKever. "'Antonio Mancini: Catalogo ragionato dell'opera. Volume I: La pittura a olio;' and 'Volume II: Repertori.' By Cinzia Virno, 2019." Burlington Magazine 162 (October 2020), p. 908.
A Circus Boy was the first painting by Mancini that dealt with the saltimbanco theme—a theme that he would revisit at least six or seven times during the 1870s. Questions have arisen concerning this painting's provenance and exhibition history, and it is unclear whether this picture or one of the others on the same theme was exhibited at the Salon of 1877 (no. 1414) and/or at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 (no. 107).
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