Luigi Maria Sotta

Italian, 1807–1882

Sotta was born in Malesco, an Italian city near the Swiss border. His father, Francesco Maria Sotta (1764–1841) was a painter, as were his brothers, Gioacchino (also Joachim) Luigi Sotta (1810–1877), and Carlo Giuseppe (1790–1872). Sotta studied with Louis Hersent (1777–1860) at the École des beaux-arts in Paris, followed by three years working in St. Petersburg.

Sotta arrived in New Orleans in 1840 with a letter of introduction from the Vicar General of Nantes. He was praised in the Louisiana Courier in March 1840 for "resemblance of greatest exactitude, a luminous color, an expression that is perfectly natural." Sotta also copied compositions by Titian, Correggio, and Van Dyck. He may have been in New Orleans as late as 1844, the year he returned to Italy. Sotta served on the faculty at the academy in Craveggia beginning in the late 1840s.

Mrs. Leonard Wiltz
Luigi Marie Sotta, 1841
Oil on canvas, 31 15/16 x 25 ½ inches, signed lower right in dark red, "Luigi Maria Sotta 1841"
Louisiana State Museum 08415.07

Like Vaudechamp's portraits of mature women, Sotta's subjects often appear as corpulent or rail thin, perhaps to emphasize the honesty of self-presentation. Sotta was perhaps most adept at capturing the traces of old age upon the countenance, notably his portrait of Mrs. Leonard Wiltz.

Lézin Becnel. Luigi Marie Sotta, 1841. Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 1/8 inches. Signed lower right in red paint, "Luigi Maria Sotta 1841." Gift of Mrs. Dorothy Becnel Moses and Phyllis Becnel through the Friends of the Cabildo, Louisiana State Museum 1975.017.02.

Lézin Becnel
Luigi Marie Sott, 1841
Oil on canvas, 29 x 24 1/8 inches, signed lower right in red paint, "Luigi Maria Sotta 1841"
Gift of Mrs. Dorothy Becnel Moses and Phyllis Becnel through the Friends of the Cabildo, Louisiana State Museum 1975.017.02

To contemporary eyes, Sotta's paintings can appear mechanical, mapping features with an unsparing eye. The even lighting reveals a highly detailed likeness, precise and accurate in individual detail, but with a forthright verism that is not always flattering.

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