" Pescatore Spadaro "
A Portrait of the famous Fisherman from Capri Francesco Spadari " Spadaro " by the Orientalist Anton " Tony " Binder, signed and dated 1899.
Oil Painting on wooden panel.
Original Frame with later outer oak frame.
Painting size... 170mm x 270mm
Overall size including frame.... 285mm x 385mm
The painting is titled on the reverse in pencil greek fisherman. The Title is for some reason incorrect as the painting is of the famous Caprese fisherman.
Francesco Spadari (1858-1937) the fisherman, became a media personality by entertaining tourists on the island of Capri, he called himself “Spadaro.”
He spent most of his time in the main piazza of the island’s harbour area rather than at sea. he dressed as an archetypal rustic Italian fisherman of the age, creating a persona that was much in demand by photographers and artists alike. period postcard images can be found of him posing in his costume with his trademark beard and long tobacco pipe, leaning on harbour walls or boats, posing on beaches, etc. on numerous occasions he was photographed with famous visitors to Capri and even, in a widely publicised stunt, he coached Russians Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Lenin on how to fish! He was so famous, that 100 years later, in 2018, Neapolitans hosted a conference about him to commemorate his “achievements”—as an illiterate fisherman entrepreneur who invented a job for himself in the then-new, 20th-century tourism economy.
anton binder known as Tony (25 October 1868, vienna- 18 January 1944, nordlingen or Munich) was an Austrian-born orientalist painter and illustrator.
Information regarding his early artistic career varies, but it is generally believed that he studied in Vienna and Munich .... although he may have been self-taught.
Tony binder, for the time, travelled a lot throughout europe and the southern mediterranean.
In 1890, he made a visit to egypt, to see his older brother, and settled in Cairo.
Four years later, he moved to Istanbul, but soon returned to Cairo and Alexandria, where in addition to painting he also worked as a photographer. it is likely he may have served as a court painter/photographer to the khedive Abbas helm ii.
In addition to Egypt, he made several trips to Italy and Greece, where he lived in around 1905/06, moving to france for a time in 1911. during one trip to vienna, he married Mary reiser, the daughter of one of his photography partners in Alexandria. During world war 1 he lived in England. soon after he moved to germany, a number of his paintings from Munich are dated 1922, and he held several exhibits at the galaspalast.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930's he returned to Egypt spending a lot of time in Luxor, where he painted for tourists and sold copies of his photographs. from 1922, Germany became his permanent residence.
On his 70th birthday, he was awarded the Goethe medal. The previous year, he had participated in an exhibition at the kunstlerhaus salzburg and had been awarded a medal from the city.
In addition to his paintings, photographs and postcard designs, he illustrated a few books; notably Ausgraber, Mumienjäger und tote Städte (Excavators, Mummy Hunters and Dead Cities), by the archaeologist, Karl Maria kaufman, published in 1928 by august schorl Verla in Berlin.
