The Mask

A green telephone on the hall table, and above it a woman in a black mask who seems to be waiting for a call. Picture her in your hallway.

The Mask by Bruno Croatto shows a pale woman reclining in a black wrap on a blood red floor, her blonde hair set in soft waves. A black silk mask covers her eyes, and her face turns towards something we cannot see. Croatto called the painting Mascherina, the little mask. Look closely at the gilded incense burner beside her, crowned with two small guardian dogs. The room around her is spare, a curtain and a floor, so the mask and the black wrap hold all the drama. Ivory silk, blood red and jet black, elegant and secretive.

Croatto was born in Trieste in 1875 and later kept a studio on Via del Babuino in Rome, where fashionable sitters came for his cool, flawless portraits. He painted with such precision his scenes feel frozen in time. This calm, polished strangeness links him with the Magic Realism of Italian art between the wars. He died in 1948, and the painting's date and present owner remain a mystery, which suits her.

The look

Ivory silk, blood red floor and jet black. Elegant, secretive and a little theatrical. Portrait wall art for a dressing room, a dark academia study or an old money hallway.

Gifting

A glamorous gift for a birthday, an anniversary or a new home. A masquerade that never ends.

More like this

More dark beauties in our Portrait Paintings collection: Madame X by John Singer Sargent. For another woman with a secret, see The Bat Woman by Albert Joseph Penot in Gothic Memento Mori Art.