#oil-painting

Supposedly he painted this same setup over and over — pale figure, near-black surroundings, no story attached to it — and it sold well enough that he kept at it for years. I couldn't find anything about this one in particular, only that there are a lot like it.

This is said to be one of the last canvases he had on the go, and it usually gets listed as unfinished. Before he ever painted a cradle he'd spent years on decorative commissions — walls, friezes, panels for other people's buildings — which might be why bedding gets as much attention here as anybody's face.

They say Boccioni studied under Giacomo Balla in Rome around this time — another future Futurist — and you can see the dabbed, Divisionist brushwork they were both practicing before either of them started smashing forms apart for speed.