SIGNORINI, Telemaco
(b. 1835, Firenze, d. 1901, Firenze)

Leith

c. 1881
Oil on canvas, 45 x 42 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

During a stay in Edinburgh in 1881, Signorini made several trips to Leith, where he collected impressions of this Scottish town that were later incorporated into this boldly cropped painting. The large advertisement sign for Rob Roy, a Robin Hood of Scotland and a character from a novel by Sir Walter Scott, was also intended as an allusion to Garibaldi, whose nickname was "Rob Roy of Italy."

The composition evokes certain elements of Degas's art.