A Fine Painting of the Baby’s Bath by Eugenio Zampighi

Fine painting depicting an Italian family and a baby getting ready for a bath.

Artist: Eugenio Zampighi (1859-1944)
Origin: Italian
Signature: signed E Zampighi (lower right)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimension: 22 1/4 x 41 1/2 in.

Notes:

Eugenio Zampighi (1859 - 1944)

Zampighi was born in Modena, Italy. He was thirteen years old when he began his art studies in 1873 at the Modena Academy, a prestigious fine arts school. Five years later, he passed all of his examinations with first class medals and received a three-year scholarship to study in Rome. In 1883 Zampighi’s interests lay in genre painting rather than landscapes, portraying the lives of common people. After a year of study in Florence, deeply influenced by the Renaissance heritage, Zampighi began devoting his efforts to the depiction of ordinary but specifically Italian people. His subject matter ranged from domestic interiors to leisure activities and family gatherings. During the early twentieth century, Zampighi continued his successful, and financially rewarding, practice in Florence. By the beginning of World War II, he was living in Maranello, a Modena suburb until his death in 1944 at the age of 85.

During his Florentine years, Zampighi also created a large painting for the Academy of Modena. Based on a poem by Giacomo Leopardi, one of Italy’s most respected nineteenth century writers, the image was resoundingly popular, and ultimately earned Zampighi the honorific degree of “professore” from the Academy. Zampighi’s painting was equally successful with American and British collectors, probably because of the large expatriate communities living in Florence at the time.