All’inizio del 1872, si trasferì a Londra per collaborare alla celebre rivista satirica “Vanity Fair”, edita da Thomas Gibson Bowles. Sollevato così dalle ristrettezze economiche, condusse una vita agiata, a contatto con l’alta società inglese, condizionata solo da obblighi mondani. Probabilmente venne introdotto da Joseph Middleton Jopling all’Arts Club, frequentato da John Millais, James Whistler e James Tissot e, in seguito, anche da Giuseppe De Nittis. Per la rivista, eseguì oltre venti caricature di personalità inglesi di spicco, compresa quella del critico John Ruskin, che incontrò personalmente. Senz’altro fu in contatto con Carlo Pellegrini, artista napoletano come la moglie di Cecioni, e tra i primi collaboratori di “Vanity Fair”. Il soggiorno inglese durò solo i primi sei mesi del 1872, una breve parentesi felice in una vita di stenti.

In early 1872, Cecioni removed to London to collaborate with “Vanty Fair”, the satirical magazine edited by Thomas Gibson Bowles. Thus rescued from indigence, he led a comfortable life in high circles, restrained only by social commitments. Joseph Middleton Jopling probably introduced the Florentine artist to the Arts Club, frequented by John Everett Millais, James Whistler and James Tissot, and later by Giuseppe De Nittis. For “Vanity Fair” Cecioni created over twenty caricatures of prominent Englishmen, including the critic John Ruskin, whom he met personally. He must certainly have been in contact with Carlo Pellegrini, an artist of Neapolitan origin, like Cecioni’s own wife, and amongst the first to collaborate with the periodical. Cecioni’s stay in England lasted only for the first six months of 1872, a brief but happy interval in a life otherwise of hardship.

http://nicholls.it/800oltremanica/storie-anglo-italiane/storia-10.htm

1872: Londra (gennaio-giugno circa)

Bowles Thomas Gibson, Jopling Joseph Middleton, Ruskin John

Londra (1888, 1912)

A. Cecioni, Opere e scritti, Milano 1932, p. 282.

L. Vitali, Lettere dei Macchiaioli, Torino 1955, pp. 108-109.

R.T. Matthews, T. Mellini, Vanity Fair, Berkeley e Los Angeles 1982.

G. Matteucci, “All’arte operatore e giudicatore superbo”, in “Ottocento Italiano”, anno 1, n. 1, marzo 1991, pp. 12-18.

P. Nicholls, Cecioni e “Vanity Fair”, in “Ottocento Italiano”, anno I, n. 4, dicembre 1991, pp.10-15.

Dizionario degli artisti, in “Pittori & pittura dell’Ottocento italiano”, Novara 1997-1999, ad vocem.

P. Nicholls, Angiolo Tricca e Adriano Cecioni, toscani alla ricerca dell’essenziale, in “Sculture da ridere. Da Adriano Cecioni a Quinto Ghermandi. Tra Otto e Novecento un secolo di caricatura e satira nella scultura italiana”, catalogo della mostra a cura di A. Panzetta, Napoli 2013, pp. 23-25.

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06777/adriano-cecioni

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

Wilkie Collins (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Charles Kingsley (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Sir Colman Michael O’Loghlen, 2nd Bt (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Granville Augustus William Waldegrave, 3rd Baron Radstock (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

George Henry Charles Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Spencer Horatio Walpole (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Samuel Morley (1872), acquerello, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Sir Colman Michael O’Loghlen, 2nd Bt (Statesmen, No. 125) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Louis Adolphe Thiers (Statesmen No. 103) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Richard Edmund St Lawrence Boyle, 9th Earl of Cork and Orrery (Statesmen No. 104) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Frederic Hervey Foster Quin (Men of the Day, No. 37) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

James Antony Froude (Men of the Day, No. 38) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

(William) Wilkie Collins (Men of the Day, No. 39) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Spencer Horatio Walpole (Statesmen, No. 105), (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

John Ruskin (Men of the Day, No. 40) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

George Grenfell Glyn, 2nd Baron Wolwerton (Statesmen, No. 106) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Alexander William Kinglake (Men of the Day, No. 41) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

William Henry Smith, 3rd Viscount Hambleden (Statesmen, No. 107) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne (Statesmen, No. 108) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

John Francis Maguire (Statesmen, No. 109) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Charles Kingsley (Men of the Day, No. 42) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

John Tyndall (Men of the Day, No. 43) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

John Cumming (Men of the Day, No. 44) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook (Statesmen No. 110) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

William Hepworth Dixon (Men of the Day, No. 45) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Amadeo I, King of Spain (Sovereigns, No. 9) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Bt (Statesmen, No. 111) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Thomas Hughes (Statesmen, No. 114) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Samuel Morley (Statesmen, No. 115) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Arthur Richard Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington (Statesmen, No. 116) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Granville Augustus William Waldegrave, 3rd Baron Radstock (Statesmen, No. 122) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.

Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow, 1st Bt. (Men of the Day, No. 53) (1872), cromolitografia, National Portrait Gallery, Londra.