Graziella

Her gaze, looking back over her shoulder, exudes a dreamy and innocent air. But in fact, she is not merely a model for a landscape painting, but the tragic heroine of a popular novel by the French poet Lamartine (Confidences).

As the humble daughter (or granddaughter) of a fisherman living in the Bay of Naples, she meets a young man of a different social standing (the narrator of the story) and falls into an impossible love.

Commissioned by the prominent American female collector Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, the painter Lefebvre depicted this girl, who follows a beautiful yet fleeting destiny in the story, on canvas with fresh brushstrokes.

The simple fishing net in her hand, and the magnificent Neapolitan landscape stretching behind her.

In the depths of her wistful eyes, as she pauses her work and looks back, perhaps a burning youthful love and a quiet premonition of the sad ending that awaits her reside.