Indagine intorno alla morte di Mathilde Duffaud, prima moglie di Vincenzo Gemito

The following article aims to provide, through the discovery of the correct dating of the death date of Mathilde Duffaud, a new analysis of the biography of Vincenzo Gemito concerning the last months of 1879 and the early 1880s. Thanks to a letter discovered in the digital archives of the Institut National d' Histoire de l'Art (INHA) library in Paris, it was found possible to contest the original date of Mathilde's death, previously recorded to the month of April in 1881. With this letter it is possible to prove that this date is wrong of a year and death actually took place in February 1880. This latest discovery brings forth, together with a careful analysis of all the collected letters, some proposals and theories regarding the dating of some works, particularly the drawings, to be dated not in 1881, as currently dated, but to be anticipated to 1880. The following article also suggests, thanks to the documentation attached to it, a small temporal shift of a few sculptures that Vincenzo Gemito sculpted in his imminent return to Naples from Paris.