Footnotes

Provenance
The artist's studio
Private collection, Bergamo
Acquired directly from the above by the family of the present owner in the late 1950s
Private collection, Italy

For Locatelli there are no problems beyond the beauty of the abundance of life. One will find no depth and metaphysical ideas in his work. In a spontaneous manner he reveals the beauty of the body and nature. Here there is no sadness and sorrow that are shown, but their opposite, the beauty and happiness of the world. Here are no complicated voices from a mysterious psyche but here is presented pure pleasure of the senses.
(V. N. De Javabode, 1939)

Born in Bergamo into a family of artists and craftsmen, Romualdo Locatelli attended the Academia Carrara in Bergamo, under the tutelage of Ponziano Loverini (1845-1929), before studying at the Palazzo di Brera in Milan, where he met his future wife Erminia. He held his first solo exhibition aged just twenty. In 1933, now living in Rome and an established society portraitist, Locatelli was commissioned to paint a portrait of King Victor Emmanuel II. This work was selected for the Venice Biennale, and brought the artist international recognition.

In 1938 Locatelli and his wife set sail on a tour of Asia, travelling as guests of the colonial governor of the Dutch East Indies. Feted as something of a celebrity, being by now an official artist to the Vatican Palace and the Royal House of Italy, Locatelli first settled in Bandung, Java, before moving to Bali, establishing a studio in Denpasar, the most modern city on the Island. It was in Bali that Locatelli would produce many of his most famous and iconic works, although his time there was short lived; the Locatellis moved to the Philippines in 1939, where they would remain until 1943, when the artist vanished under mysterious circumstances. On February 24, 1943, Locatelli set off on a bird-watching hike into the forest in Rizal, north of Manila, and was never seen again.

Given the political situation in Manila at the time, with Italian nationals seen by the Japanese Governance of the Philippines as traitors, Locatelli's mysterious disappearance led to a great deal of speculation, although whether his death was politically motivated has never been proven. For Locatelli's widow, something about his disappearance typified the artist's character: 'Many friends were not surprised about his disappearance: his will to travel in wild and dangerous places during years when no Italian would have loved to travel, was seen as a way to disappear, probably a strong aspect of the dark side of his character.'