The Young Widow (c.1895)

It’s not easy to decipher what’s going on behind the languid eyes of this painting’s subject. She doesn’t appear to be overly grief-stricken but we somehow get the sense that she has been widowed by a much older man and that a hundred respectable familial eyes are watching her for any possible false move. Or perhaps she, so young, is simply discombobulated by the reality of death and that now – suddenly an adult facing an uncertain life – she wonders if she will be able to bear the whole overwhelming business. Or perhaps more transcendentally, she ‘has felt a presence that disturbs her with the joy of elevated thoughts’…

Born in Catanzaro at the foot of Italy, Garibaldi studied at the Istituto di Belle Arti di Napoli, under the tutorship of Filippo Palazzi (1818-1899) and Domenico Morelli (1823-1901 the approach of whom he remained stylistically devoted. Despite his reluctance to publicly display his work, thanks to the intercession of his friends, his pieces appeared in national and international exhibitions in Milan, Turin, Monaco, Barcelona, Paris and London. Meticulous in his portraits and passionate in landscape paintings. His works are most commonly found in the homes of the Catanzaro aristocracy.

Garibaldi’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, the record price being 12,000 USD for Capri with a View towards Punta Tragara sold at Christie’s London in 2005.