Lot 185

What may have been a spoon in the child's hand has broken off (old loss), an old repair to flower, minor chips to the granite pedestal, no other noticeable faults.


The opinions expressed in the condition reports are a guide only and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Prospective buyers are encouraged to inspect articles for sale at our pre-sale viewing where Leonard Joel staff are available for advice.
Leonard Joel makes no guarantee of the originality of mechanical or applied components. Absence of reference to such modifications does not imply that a lot is free from modifications.

An identical example was exhibited at The United States Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Centennial Art Exhibition, Italian Department, Memorial Hall,Philadelphia. Official Catalogue no. 2: 'Bernasconi, Pietro, Milan, A Child's First Misfortune'.
Auction catalogue of Statuary and Paintings from Italy's exhibit, Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, The Messrs Leavitt, Auctioneers, March 22, 1877, Cat. no. 7, "A Child's Misfortune" marble pedestal

The Unfinished Exhibition: Visualizing Myth, Memory, and the Shadow of the Civil War in Centennial America by Susanna Gold, 2016, Figure 1.4, p. 24

According to Sartain's (The Centennial International Curator) design, just through the doors of either Memorial Hall or the Annex, an assembly of Italian figural sculpture would immediately engulf the visitor in the vestibule, where "the countrymen of Canova seize us with a multitude of marble hands" and "swarms from the Carrara hive surround us" so that "we cannot escape them if we would".. Sentimental depictions of children in animated youthful attitudes and expression, " a great nursery of children".... including Pietro Bernasconi's ' A Child of Misfortune'....."Nothing in the whole Exhibition attracted so much attention as the Italian Statuary".