1880s Bronze Head of a Young Boy Signed by Vincenzo Gemito

Vincenzo Gemito was an Italian sculptor and artist. Intolerant of academic art, he associated himself with other "rebel" artists, such as Antonio Mancini, Giovanni Battista Amendola, Achille D’Orsi and Ettore Ximenes. Between 1877 and 1880, he stayed in Paris, participating in three editions of the Universal Exposition. Once back in Naples, he received important commissions also from King Umberto I but, as a result of a mental breakdown, he remained locked up in a psychiatric hospital until 1909, when he began to sculpt, devoting himself, during the last years of his life, to the goldsmith's art. His most important works include Il Malatiello (1870), The Neapolitan Fisherman (1877), The Statue of Carlo V (1887) and The Portrait of the Painter Jean Louis E. Meissonier (1879).