The cobbler

Teofilo Patini (Castel di Sangro 1840 – Naples 1906)

The cobbler by Teofilo Patini (1840–1906) was displayed in 1873 at the exhibition of the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti in Naples.
The painting, made during Patini’s time in Rome, but inspired by the Abruzzo area, comes at a turning point in the artist’s production when his research, tending towards plasticity and analytical description, turned towards scenes of everyday life of the poorer classes.
For the first time, in this work Patini experiments with one of his most characteristic qualities: the ability to be as spare in his use of colour, here played out in shades of brown, as he is dramatic in the scene depicted.
Held in the art collections of the Banco di Napoli (61.5×48.5 cm), only two other replicas of The cobbler were known until now, both of unknown location (45×35 cm and 38×30 cm respectively).
The one presented here and purchased by the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, therefore, would be a third drafting (60×45 cm) so far unpublished.
Probably executed in the 1880s, a period in which Patini was working on large canvases of social commitment, the work attests not only to the fortune that the subject continued to enjoy, but also to his interest in a type of pictorial rendering that, compared to the first version of 1873, now appears to be more detached from drawing.
The presence, next to The Redemption, of this third version of The cobbler will offer the visitor a rare opportunity to compare two decisive periods in Patini’s artistic production: the beginning of his fame as a protagonist of Italian verismo and the last season of his life, when the artist focused his interest on religious themes with strong symbolic-Masonic content.