Woman Sitting at a Table and Laughing

Antonio Piccinni 1846 - 1920

Summary

Seated portrait of a middle aged woman. The subject is facing the viewer and has her hands crossed on a table in front of her. Her hair is pinned up and she has a laughing expression. The background is dark shadow with no detail. This etching was one of a collection formed by print expert PG Hamerton (1834-94) for the Manchester Art Museum, an educational gallery which opened in 1886 in the industrial suburb of Ancoats. The collection was transferred to the City Art Gallery in 1912, the Art Museum maintaining that they did not have enough space to display it. On acquisition, the prints were displayed together, with a catalogue of the pithy comments on each print that Hamerton had made in 1882. For this work, he had noted, 'Rather a vulgar subject, and too real for fine art, but wonderfully powerful in its way. The etching is technically excellent all through, as sound as possible.'