Lot 52: MATTEO SANDONA (American, 1881-1964) In her Kimono 36 x 28 5/8in

Matteo Sandona (American, 1881-1964)
In her Kimono
signed 'Sandona' (lower right)
oil on canvas
36 x 28 5/8in
overall: 42 1/2 x 35 1/2in
FOOTNOTES
Exhibited
Irvine, The Irvine Museum, All Things Bright & Beautiful, Paintings from The Irvine Museum, traveling exhibition 2008 - 2009.
Irvine, The Irvine Museum, All Things Bright & Beautiful, The National Tour Comes Home, November 10, 2010 – June 11, 2011.
Irvine, The Irvine Museum, California Rhapsody: Early Artists of the Bohemian Club, June 18 – November 3, 2011.
Irvine, The Irvine Museum, Lasting Impressions: Twenty Years of the Irvine Museum, January 26 – June 6, 2013.

Literature
Nancy D.W. Moure, California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media, Los Angeles, 1998, fig. 13-20, p. 169, illustrated in color.
William H. Gerdts, All Things Bright & Beautiful, California Paintings from The Irvine Museum, Irvine, 1998, p. 133, illustrated in color.
Joan Irvine Smith, A California Woman's Story, Irvine, 2006, p. 173, illustrated in color.
Jean Stern, Selections from the Irvine Museum, Irvine, 2009, p. 207, illustrated in color, p. 266, illustrated full page detail.

Matteo Sandona showed tremendous artistic potential at an early age. His parents sent him to study at the Verona Academy and later in Paris under Napolean Nami and Moses Bianci. While in Venice, Sandona likely saw the work of Giovanni Boldini and John Singer Sargent, both consummate portrait painters.

He then returned to his family, who had immigrated to the United States and took further training at the National Academy of Design. In 1901, he and his father settled in San Francisco. That same year, reacting against the conservatism of the San Francisco Art Association, Sandona co-founded the California Society of Artists with Gottardo Piazzoni, Xavier Martinez, Charles Peter Neilson and William Bull.

He opened his own studio and exhibited at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art in 1902 and 1903, and frequently showed at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco. A consistent prize winner in exhibitions, he was asked to serve on the international jury of awards for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

A San Francisco art patron named Piero Rossi agreed to give Sandona a salary and pay for his studio in return for all of the artwork he produced. This may explain why works from this period by the artist are rare, as the fate of Rossi's purchases is unknown.

In Her Kimono, is arguably the best known painting by Matteo Sandona today. If one were to cover the signature, this painting could be mistaken for the work of artists such as William Merritt Chase, Edmund Tarbell, Frank Benson or Childe Hassam. The impressionistic dabs of paint are thick and extraordinary, with a rich kaleidoscope of color and shadow. The sitter's pose is unique and provocative, as she tilts her head and body as if about to leave her wicker chair at any moment. The foreshortening of her left arm and delicate hand are extremely accurate and the overall effect is a portrait that rivals those of the great Impressionists of the day.

Sandona's private files of clippings of exhibitions, held during the years 1916 to 1919, describe a collection of portraits that were made into reproductions so that "people from all walks of life; social, artistic and business, from average-income homes" could enjoy them. One of these paintings is described as a seated model and given the title The Red Kimono. A photo of the work does not exist, but this may be the same painting.