Ettore Cercone

Ettore Cercone (Messina, November 21, 1850 — Sorrento, September 12, 1896) was an Italian painter, mainly of female figures, seascapes and orientalist subjects.

His career took him to the West Indies where he began collecting specimens of marine flora and fauna for the "Aquarium" station in Naples.

He left active service in the Navy in 1888 but went into the Naval Reserve, where he was promoted to a rocket captain two years later.

His paintings have clear references to the Neapolitan artistic culture of the late nineteenth century, and in particular to Domenico Morelli, which whom he perhaps also had a more direct relationship.

Following that, he concentrated on Oriental themes which were very popular with the bourgeois society of the time.