Prince Troubetzkoy’s Children with Their Dog

This piece, presented at the annual Brera exhibition in 1874, is among the most successful works by Daniele Ranzoni, a painter who, along with Tranquillo Cremona, adopted the pictorial legacy of Milan's Scapigliatura artistic movement. Pietro, Paolo, and Luigi—the 3 sons of Pietro Troubetzkoy, the Russian ambassador—are depicted with their dog inside the greenhouse at their family's villa in Ghiffa, on Lake Maggiore. The artist adopts an informal approach to his subjects, avoiding rigid, formal poses to more appropriately convey the vitality of the 3 children. They seem to gaze out from the canvas' oval frame, observing us with curiosity, their expressions lively and somewhat impertinent. The impression is that of a snapshot, in which the protaganists' clothes and postures can be recognized only by hinted details, flattened against a background that offers no spatial depth.