On the Eve of Her Wedding by by Antonio Mancini

Young woman
This young woman, with her round face and informal hairstyle, is not a “perfect vision” but a real person. The artist, Antonio Mancini, was interested in painting what he saw rather than the mythological or historical scenes of academic painting popular at the time (ca. 1882).

Color palette
The painting’s dark palette (or range of colors used) is a hallmark of Mancini’s more realistic approach.

Mancini, who had visited Paris in 1875 and 1877, saw the new, anti-academic styles, such as Impressionism, emerging there and helped lead a movement in his native Italy called “Verismo,” which was an adaptation of the new French style and means “truth.”

Impasto
For the woman’s cheeks, her bouquet, and the thread, the artist applied layers of thick paint and left his brushwork visible.

Mancini was inspired by French artists Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, who often used impasto, a way of painting that shows the hand of the artist in the strokes of paint.

Bouquet
In the midst of crafting her bouquet, the bride-to-be seems to sigh and flush with pleasure, as she thinks about her nuptials the next day. This image of a real-world, fleeting moment in time is typical of the Verismo style.

White flowers
The white flowers and other bright highlights contrast with the dark background, bringing attention to the young woman.

Cropping
The slightly off-center framing and the unusual cropping of the table and chair show the influence of photography, which had recently been invented. Photography inspired artists to play with different compositions, arranging the parts of the picture in new and dynamic ways.

Milwaukee Connection
How did the Milwaukee Art Museum Museum come to have this painting? Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Merrill of Milwaukee donated the painting in 1919. Mr. Merrill was an executive of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway (and the namesake of Merrill Park in Milwaukee).

The couple purchased the painting in the early 1880s on a trip to Italy, where they met Mancini and had him paint their portraits.