Portrait of Teresita Lorenzon

The author of this painting is Lino Selvatico, born in Padua in 1872. He comes from an important family: his father Riccardo had been mayor of Venice!
Although he initially studied to become a lawyer, Lino soon realized that his true passion was painting and tried to learn as much as possible from the masters who worked in Venice such as Cesare Laurenti and Ettore Tito.
Selvatico specialized in painting elegant and refined people. His paintings were highly appreciated both in Italy and abroad, where they were purchased by noble and wealthy families. He especially loved to portray women, dressed in fashionable clothes, and children.
Among his most famous paintings, the Portrait of Teresita Lorenzon shows the girl (who was then fourteen years old) on the external steps of her home-studio in Milan. Teresita is dressed in a fashionable dress in the 1920s, has short hair and high heels. In the background, the cloudy sky and the trees create a well-balanced set of colors, between gray and red, that recalls those of the protagonist. Selvatico painted this picture in 1923, shortly before dying in a motorcycle accident. Teresita's family donated the painting to the Bailo Museum in 2002.