In una lettera a Vittore Grubicy, Morbelli ricorda un viaggio a Londra per una settimana nel 1889, con Adolfo Hohenstein e Spartaco Vela, quando Samuel Butler, conosciuto nello studio dello stesso Vela a Ligornetto nel 1878, gli faceva da cicerone. Fra gli artisti inglesi ai quali probabilmente guardava con interesse, si citano: Frederick Walker, Hubert Herkomer ( specie The Last Muster) e Luke Fildes, la cui opera poteva già aver conosciuto attraverso periodici come “The Graphic”, “The Illustrated London News” o “The Art Journal”. Il titolo di un’opera che espose a Londra nel 1888, Pall-Mall Gazette Subject, confermerebbe una sua particolare attenzione a certa stampa britannica.

In a letter to Vittore Grubicy, Morbelli recalls a trip to London for a week in 1889, accompanied by Adolfo Hohenstein and Spartaco Vela. Samuel Butler, whom he had met in Vela’s studio at Ligornetto in 1878, acted as his guide. The artists he probably observed with interest, would include: Frederick Walker, Hubert Herkomer (especially The Last Muster) and Luke Fildes, whose work he could already have known from periodicals like “The Graphic”, “The Illustrated London News” or “The Art Journal”. The title of a work he exhibited in London in 1888, Pall-Mall Gazette Subject, seems to confirm his attention towards a certain British press.

1889: Londra (ottobre).

Butler Samuel

Londra (1888, 1904)

s.a., The Chronicle of Art. Art in November (1883), in “The Magazine of Art”, vol. VII, 1884, p. vi.

T. Carew Martin, Introduction, in “The Italian Exhibition in London. 1888. The Official Art Catalogue”, London 1888.

L. Chirtani, Gli artisti italiani a Londra, in “Ricordo della Esposizione Italiana Londra 1888. Numero speciale dell’Illustrazione Italiana”, Milano 1888, p. 19.

Illustrated Catalogue of Alberto Grubicy’s Picture Gallery in the Italian Exhibition in London (May-October 1888) with a Preface and Biographical Notes by “Vittore”, Art Critic of La Riforma of Roma, Milano 1888, pp. 23-25.

s.a., The Chronicle of Art. Art in July, in “The Magazine of Art”, vol. XI, 1888, p. xxxiii.

F. Duval, The Pictures at the Paris Exhibition, in “The Athenaeum”, 13luglio 1889, p. 71.

Sunday Morning, in “European Pictures of the Year, being the Foreign Art Supplement to The Magazine of Art”, 1894, p. 34, ripr.

S. Berresford, Italy. Divisionism: its origins, its aims and its relationship to French Post-Impressionist Painting, in “Post-Impressionism. Cross-Currents in European Painting”, catalogo della mostra a c.d., AA.VV, Londra 1979, pp. 218-226.

A. Scotti Tosini, Luce e colore, realtà e simbolo nella pittura di Morbelli, in “Angelo Morbelli tra realismo e divisionismo”, catalogo della mostra a cura di A. Scotti Tosini, Torino 2001, pp. 19, 40, n. 28.

Lettere ms da Angelo Morbelli a Vittore Grubicy, MART, Rovereto, 4 settembre 1891 (rif. Gru., I, 4 n. 47).

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=angelo%20morbelli&retrievecountrycounts=false

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1850-01-01/1899-12-31?basicsearch=angelo%20morbelli&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false