Portrait of the painter Nandor Thuroczy by Gaetano Esposito. Oil painting on panel from the late 19th century in perfect condition. Measurements: height 23 cm x 38 cm, frame 56x41. Written on the back: This original painting by Gaetano Esposito is the first sketch of the definitive portrait of the miniaturist Thuroczy, who suffered disdain: a great bohemian and beer drinker, a friend of the greatest Neapolitan painter. Photocopy of the portrait of Thuroczy von Köröskeny Nandor or Ferdinand, published on page 251 in A. M. Comanducci, Illustrated Dictionary of Modern Italian Painters and Engravers, Milan 1962. Gaetano Esposito (1858 - 1911) was born in Salerno on November 17, 1858, into a family of fishermen. Escaping the seafaring life after surviving a shipwreck, he received his first drawing lessons from the painter from Salerno, Gaetano D'Agostino. The young man's artistic talent was later noticed by Domenico Morelli, who in 1872 had him admitted, as a pensioner of the province of Salerno, to the Royal Institute of Fine Arts of Naples. In addition to the academic courses, E. attended the evening school of Stanislao Lista, but in general, his studies were rather discontinuous. His rebellious character and inability to submit to any discipline prompted him instead to wander the streets of the city and the surrounding countryside in search of subjects more suited to his temperament. Irascible, suspicious, and jealous, E. was not liked by his fellow students, with the sole exception of Antonio Mancini, with whom he shared his first artistic experiences and to whom he remained bound by ties of esteem and friendship for all his life. Mancini made an intense youthful oil portrait of E. in 1878 (Naples, Ottaviano collection; repr. in Schettini, 1953, p. 153). His exhibiting activity began during his years of study with participation, starting in 1875, in the exhibitions of the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts of Naples; in 1877, moreover, three paintings by E. appeared, alongside the works of A. Mancini, F. P. Michetti, and V. Migliaro, at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of Naples. Also in 1877, E. won, with two pencil drawings, the encouragement prize announced by the academy, thanks to which he was able to complete his artistic training with a study trip to Florence. The assimilation of Morelli's lesson is evident, especially in the choice of the historical-religious strand of oriental taste and setting, together with a greater accuracy in the definition of the contours of the figures and a more vivid and brilliant chromatism. The first years of activity were not without difficulties for E., who was forced to sell his works to survive and ask for hospitality from other painters due to the lack of his own studio. The artistic production of this period is linked to the execution of genre paintings, in which the basic verism is enriched by virtuoso descriptivist effects not extraneous to the influence of M. Fortuny. In these works, E. already appears engaged in a more personal research on color. Later, E. directed his pictorial research towards the Neapolitan artists of the 17th century, in particular Massimo Stanzione and Bernardo Cavallino, from the study of whom he drew the model for a more refined and sensitive chromatism, together with greater attention to tonal values and light effects. The last twenty years of the century represent the period of most intense activity for E., who was also engaged in some decoration works, such as those, carried out in 1887 together with other artists, for the Gambrinus café in Naples (Limoncelli, 1952, pp. 169 ff.); those for the ceiling of the Garibaldi municipal theater of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in 1895 and finally those for the ceiling of the renovated Stock Exchange building in Naples. In this same period, E. concentrated his interest on landscape painting, portraying above all seascapes in which he obtained his highest expressive results. Towards the end of the century, the push that had until then supported the tireless activity of E. seemed to run out: his participation in exhibitions became less frequent, while his own pictorial elaboration, limited to the usual themes of genre verism, seemed to be lost in exasperated tonal research. In 1910, a tragic episode definitively upset the painter's already precarious psychic equilibrium: a young student, Venturina Castrignani, who had fallen in love with the master, committed suicide after being rejected. Deeply shaken and tormented by guilt, E. in turn took his own life a short time later, in Sala Consilina (Salerno) on April 7, 1911.