The origin of denim, the world’s most enduringly popular fabric, is debated. A new exhibition highlights a claim that links denim with 17th-century Italy, pushing its history back 200 years. Another contention attributes blue denim to southern France. According to modern jeans mythology, Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, is credited with making workwear out of this sturdy cotton in San Francisco 150 years ago.
A gallery run by international fine art dealer Maurizio Canesso is calling for further research to help identify an anonymous painter specializing in street scenes depicting people in northern Italy wearing what appears to be blue denim. Canesso’s gallery, celebrating 30 years of trade, will host a touring exhibition featuring major works it has sold and lent back by its owners. One of the highlights is “Woman Begging With Two Children,” one of ten paintings by the unknown “Master of the Blue Jeans” that Canesso believes establish the fabric’s roots in his native Lombardy. The painting’s central figure wears what seems to be a frayed denim skirt.
Véronique Damian of Galerie Canesso in Paris mentioned, “Unfortunately, we have no new theories about who the Master of the Blue Jeans was.” Damian added that clues suggest the artist spent most of his career in Lombardy in the late 17th century, although there are reasons to think he might have trained elsewhere.
