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Artwork Details
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Title:Self-Portrait
Artist:Umberto Boccioni (Italian, Reggio 1882–1916 Sorte)
Date:1905
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:21 1/2 × 27 5/8 in. (54.6 × 70.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Lydia Winston Malbin, 1989
Object Number:1990.38.4
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Boccioni
the artist (1905–d. 1916); his sister, Amelia Raffaella Boccioni Callegari, Verona (1916–58; sold in May 1958, for 1,500,300 lire, to Winston); Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston, Birmingham, Mich. (1958–his d. 1966); Lydia Winston Malbin, Detroit and New York (1966–d. 1989; her bequest to MMA)
Rome. Società Amatori e Cultori di Belle Arti. "LXXV Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti," February–March 1905, no. 55.
Milan. Castello Sforzesco. "Mostra Boccioni," May? 1933, no catalogue (checklist no. 109; lent by Prof. G. V. Callegari, Verona).
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Futurism," May 31–September 5, 1961, no. 21 (lent by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Lewis Winston, Birmingham, Michigan).
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Futurism," October 18–December 19, 1961, no. 21.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Futurism," January 14–February 19, 1962, no. 21.
New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. "Futurism: A Modern Focus. The Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection. Dr. and Mrs. Barnett Malbin," November 16, 1973–February 3, 1974, no. 26.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Futurism and the International Avant-Garde," October 26, 1980–January 4, 1981, no. 15 (dated c. 1905; lent by The Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection [Dr. and Mrs. Barnett Malbin, New York]).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Boccioni: A Retrospective," September 15, 1988–January 8, 1989, no. 4 (lent by Lydia Winston Malbin, New York).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Boccioni: The Lydia Winston Malbin Bequest," June 15, 1990–January 15, 1991, no catalogue.
Venice. Palazzo Grassi. "Biennale, 46 Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte. Identity and Alterity: Figures of the Body 1895–1995," June 11–October 15, 1995, no. II 55.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Boccioni and Women," June 19–October 18, 1998, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Looking At You," January 26–September 30, 2001, no catalogue.
Madrid. Fundación MAPFRE. "Del Divisionismo al Futurismo: El arte italiano hacia la modernidad," February 17–June 5, 2016, no. 50.
"L'Esposizione Internazionale di Belle Arti in Roma." L'Italia Industriale Artistica 3 (May–June 1905), p. 2, ill.
Giorgio Nicodemi. "Umberto Boccioni." La Cultura Moderna 41 (July 1933), ill. p. 396, as in the collection of Prof. G. V. Callegari, Verona.
Giulio Carlo Argan with Maurizio Calvesi. Umberto Boccioni. Rome, 1953, p. 35, as in the collection of Callegari-Boccioni, Verona.
Joshua C. Taylor. Futurism. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1961, p. 142, no. 21, dates it about 1907.
Hilton Kramer. "Futurism Today." Arts Magazine 36 (October 1961), ill. p. 22, dates it about 1907.
Raffaele Carrieri. Futurism. Milan, 1963, p. 24, quotes Gino Severini's reminiscence that this painting was the only one accepted out of the group of works Boccioni submitted to Exh. Rome 1905 [see Ref. Severini 1995].
Maurizio Calvesi. "Il Manifesto del futurismo e i pittori futuristi." L'Arte moderna 5, no. 37 (1967), ill. p. 38, locates it in the collection of H. L. Winston, Birmingham, U. S. A.
Gene Baro. "Collector: Lydia Winston." Art in America 55 (September–October 1967), ill. p. 75 (installation photo), dates it about 1908.
Teresa Fiori, ed. Archivi del divisionismo. Rome, 1968, vol. 2, pp. 182–83, no. 2220, pl. 465, dates it 1907.
Gianfranco Bruno. L'Opera completa di Boccioni. Milan, 1969, p. 88, no. 16a, ill., dates it 1907 and relates it to a self-portrait drawing inscribed "907" (private collection; Calvesi and Coen 1983, no. 268).
Anna Maria Damigella. "Modernismo, simbolismo, divisionismo, arte sociale a Roma dal 1900 al 1911." Aspetti dell'arte a Roma dal 1870 al 1914. Rome, 1972, p. XLVII, notes that it has been erroneously dated 1907 even though it was reproduced in Ref. Italia industriale 1905.
Linda Shearer and Marianne W. Martin. Futurism: A Modern Focus. The Lydia and Harry Lewis Winston Collection. Dr. and Mrs. Barnett Malbin. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1973, pp. 64–65, 236, no. 26, ill. (color), date it about 1908.
Guido Ballo. Boccioni, la vita e l'opera. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1964). Milan, 1982, p. 210, appendix no. 22, ill., dates it 1907.
Maurizio Calvesi and Ester Coen. Boccioni: L'opera completa. Milan, 1983, p. 146, no. 40, ill., date it 1905.
Maria Drudi Gambillo and Teresa Fiori, ed. Archivi del futurismo. 2nd ed. (1st ed., 1958 and 1962). Rome, 1986, vol. 2, p. 255, no. 55, ill. p. 187.
Gerald Silk. "At Home with the Future: In New York, Lydia Winston Malbin's Futurist Art Rivals Italy's Best." House & Garden 158 (October 1986), ill. p. 210 (color, installation photo), dates it about 1908.
Enrico Falqui. Bibliografia e iconografia del Futurismo. reprint ed. (1st ed., 1959). Florence, 1988, pl. VI.
Ester Coen. Umberto Boccioni. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1988, pp. xvi, 10–12, no. 4, ill. (color) and p. xviii (printed card), notes that Boccioni had this picture printed on paper with the letterhead of Exh. Rome 1905; suggests Boccioni greatly valued this work because he kept it throughout his life.
Sylvia Hochfield. "Spotlight. Lydia Winston Malbin: A Futurist Eye." Art News 87 (April 1988), pp. 91–92, ill. (color, installation photo).
Giorgio Verzotti. Boccioni: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1989, pp. 24–25, no. 6, ill.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1989–1990." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 48 (Fall 1990), pp. 65–66, ill. (color).
Gino Severini. The Life of a Painter: The Autobiography of Gino Severini. (Italian ed., 1983). Princeton, 1995, p. 21, notes that this picture was the only one chosen out of five or six submitted by Boccioni for inclusion in Exh. Rome 1905, calling it "the least interesting of all".
Maurizio Calvesi. Boccioni nella collezione Ingrao. Nuoro, 2001, pp. 8, 77, 79 [possibly this picture], publishes 1955 and 1956 letters from Amelia Boccioni Callegari to Francesco Ingrao offering to sell a Boccioni self-portrait for one million lire.
Federica Rovati. "La Mostra su Boccioni del 1933." Acme: Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano 54 (September–December 2001), pp. 307, 310, 320, no. 109.
Omar Cucciniello inDel Divisionismo al Futurismo: El arte italiano hacia la modernidad. Exh. cat., Fundación MAPFRE. Madrid, 2016, p. 187, no. 50, ill. p. 191 (color).
Umberto Boccioni (Italian, Reggio 1882–1916 Sorte)
1909–10
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