Emilio Vasarri

Emilio Vasarri was a painter of genre scenes, domestic subjects, and children's games, working primarily in oil. Most sources place his birth in Montevarchi, Tuscany, in 1862, though a French language source instead gives November 1866, and two commercial gallery listings give his birthplace as Florence rather than Montevarchi. After training under Ferruccio del Bianco, he is reported to have attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, though no source specifies a degree or exact years of study.

He began exhibiting as early as 1878, in Rome and Palermo, and showed La vedova morente (The Dying Widow) at the Promotrice di Firenze in 1890. In 1893 he exhibited at the Circolo Artistico di Firenze alongside Giovanni Fattori, Giovanni Muzzioli, and Arturo Faldi. He later relocated to Paris and, from around 1897, exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, where in 1900 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle. In 1904 he showed The Game Geese and The Gossips at the Italian Exhibition at Earl's Court in London.

He is deceased, but the sources disagree on the details of his death. Italian language sources give a death year of 1928 in Paris, while French language sources and at least one art market database give 1931, with the French account specifying his home in Courbevoie, a Paris suburb, and stating he died at age 64. No obituary, museum record, or major art press notice was found to resolve this conflict, so both the year and place of death should be treated as unconfirmed pending further archival research.

There is no body of sustained critical writing about Vasarri available in current research, and no exact, attributable quotation from a named critic in a major outlet could be located. What can be said is that his inclusion in the 1893 Circolo Artistico di Firenze exhibition placed him alongside better known Florentine painters of the period, including Giovanni Fattori, and that his bronze medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle represents a genuine, juried recognition from a major international exhibition of the era rather than a purely commercial or self-reported honor.

Vasarri's market is small and thinly documented. The best documented auction result identified is Dressing for the feast, which sold for USD 5,500 at Heritage Auctions on 10 June 2021. A separate, single secondary source also reports a sale of an unidentified work for USD 125,000 in New York in 2016, but it names no auction house, no work title, and no exact date, and no second source corroborates it, so it should be treated as an unverified claim rather than a confirmed record. His work today is more commonly found through antique dealers and smaller gallery listings, such as Mayfair Gallery and Phidias Antiques, than through major auction houses, and no gallery or estate currently represents him. No major museum collection holding his work could be confirmed in current research.

Vasarri's basic biographical facts, including his exact birth year, death year, and place of death, are reported inconsistently across the available sources, and no primary document such as a birth or death record, obituary, or museum biography has been located to resolve the conflicts. There is no catalogue raisonne and no active authentication body for his work. The only confirmed auction result identified is a USD 5,500 sale of Dressing for the feast at Heritage Auctions in 2021; a separately reported USD 125,000 figure from a 2016 New York sale rests on a single, loosely sourced claim rather than a verifiable lot record. His market activity appears concentrated in the antiques and smaller-gallery trade rather than at major auction houses. Collectors considering a work attributed to Vasarri should treat provenance research and independent verification as essential rather than optional.