GUGIELMO PUGI (Fiesole, Italy, c. 1850 - ¿, 1915).
"Seated young woman".
Marble.
Signed on the base.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture of the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Size: 28 x 44 x 17 cm.
Pugi developed his career in Florence between 1870 and 1915, the year of his death. He became famous for the bust of King Umberto I that he painted for the square dedicated to him in Fiesole, the artist's birthplace. In addition to bust portraits and classicist representations of the same genre, Pugi produced figures of oriental women and mythological and allegorical subjects. He also produced copies of antique statuary for foreigners visiting Italy on the Grand Tour, which were marketed internationally by the Galleria Bazzanti, with whom Cesare Lapini and Ferdinando Vichi also worked. He also took part in various exhibitions. He developed a language that reveals a certain influence of neoclassicism, although he was less rigorous and endowed with a greater grace and sensuality, very much in line with fin-de-siècle art. As his prestige grew, Pugi expanded his workshop with the help of his sons and his business became known as Guglielmo Pugi e Figli. His production was extensive, both in Carrara marble and in other cheaper materials such as alabaster and terracotta. Today Guglielmo Pugi is represented in the Museum of Volterra, among others.