SEATED WOMAN - CHEERFUL DOMINA

The work depicts a seated woman: she wears simple clothes and holds a fan in her hand; her gaze is directed downwards, as if she were sad or thoughtful. There are not many details around her, except for the edge of the armchair. The shapes of the figure are traced by a thick contour line, while the colors used are only two, yellow and blue.
This painting was made between 1913 and 1919. Its history is very interesting because the artist modified it several times. The first version was presented in the collective exhibition of the Opera Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice in 1913. That exhibition raised many discussions because the artists present, such as Rossi, Arturo Martini, Umberto Oppi and Tullio Garbari, brought modern and difficult to understand works. Rossi's Donnina allegra was also heavily criticized on that occasion.
Rossi had already painted other portraits of women, such as the famous Flower Girl from 1909. In this work, however, one can notice that his way of painting is changing: it is likely that the artist made some changes to the painting and simplified it in the years around the First World War.