Four Chinese Drawings On Rice Paper 19th Century

An Officer's Portrait 1897

Oil on canvas. Signed, dated and with location Rome in the bottom right-hand corner. There is little biographical information on the painter Mario Spinetti, but various genre scenes and some portraits are known of his production. Presented here is a three-quarter-length portrait of an officer of the Royal Italian Army. The painting is presented in a gilded antique frame, which is in need of restoration due to multiple missing parts.

Oil on canvas. Lombard School. Portrait of a middle-aged austere and composed lady, The painting is in good conditions and comes in a coeval frame. that shows small drops of the gilding.

Oil on canvas. Lombard School. Portrait of a woman that highlights the lace of the dress and the crucifix around the neck. It is in good conditions and comes in a gilded coeval frame that shows small drops of color.

Pencil on paper. Good use of the hatching and chiaroscuro are shown in this portrait of a young woman. The portrait comes with a 19th century wooden frame that had beeen embellished with leafy and floral leather inserts; the frame has some color drops and some missing parts.

Pencil, charcoal and white lead on paper. Signed (Amalia Bianchi?) and dated at the bottom right. Very effective is the use of different pigments that creates a play of chiaroscuri that underlines the figure. The portrait come in a 19th century wooden frame with leather leafy and floral inserts; it has missing parts and color drops.

Burin engravings on copper. Designed by Vincenzo Gazzotto and engraved by Antonio Bernati (1792-1873) in 1833, these are four engravings taken from the figurative repertoire "The costume of all nations and of all times, described and illustrated with an atlas" published by Lodovico Menin between 1833 and 1843. Each panel is numbered in the upper right corner, and bears in the upper center the indication of the geographical region and historical period of the costume scenes depicted. There are costumes: Lombardi sec. IX - X; Lombardi sec. XIV -XV; Tuscans sec. XIII-XIV; Marca Trevigiana sec. XIV. The engravings are presented in wooden frames from the mid-1900s, in an antique style.

Old Naples's View 1933

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Ricciardi was a prolific Neapolitan painter considered by some to be the seed of Neapolitan impressionism; he painted seascapes, beaches, views, landscapes and Neapolitan customs and traditions of his city as his main subjects. In his works the intense chromaticism, the study from life, the abandonment of the drawing and the limpid and terse light that pervades the scenes, reveal the knowledge of Impressionism, due to the presence in Naples of Giuseppe De Nittis. This glimpse of Naples has been repeatedly replicated by the artist, and in one of these works also appears the title "Impression of old Naples", absent here. It is an intense glimpse of the atmosphere of an old popular Neapolitan street, enlivened by a market populated by human figures, with old peeling walls decorated with hanging clothes and planters. The work is rather dark, a brown monochromatism prevails, interrupted only by the brighter colors of the human figures; the only source of light comes from the artificial lights turned on in the shop down the street. The work has a slight damage in the upper right corner (small cut of the canvas). It is presented in a coeval frame.

Gouaches on paper. The two small paintings offer Neapolitan views, identified by the inscriptions below: on the left, the eruption of Vesuvius in 1794, on the right, the entrance to the Grotte di Pozzuoli. Typical Grand Tour works, practically delicate and detailed postcards. They are presented in a single frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Unidentified signature lower right (Solini?). The man is portrayed with a headdress and home clothes, while holding in his hands an object that could be a snuffbox, to underline the dimension of domestic rest. The painting is presented in a frame from the early 1900s.

Oil on canvas. Center-Italian School. The glimpse shows a river that flows fastlly crossing an hilly landscape; along the shore, at the left side, there are two women that are washing clothes and a wayfarer; on the right side of the river, in the background, ther is a small hamlet. The painting shows small drops of color. It comes in a 20th century frame that had been gilded again.

Oil on canvas. Eastern European School. Signed Szego G. below. These are two works to be proposed aligned because they depict a boy and a girl lying on the same lawn in a mirrored position, as if facing each other, probably intent on a love game: they wear gypsy clothes and have musical instruments with them - she a tambourine and him a violin - which refer to two characters of Slavic ethnicity, from the gypsy world. The whole is lively and serene. The two works are presented in styled frames.

Watercolor on cardboard. On the back there is the date 1892 and an unidentified signature. The composition presents a series of objects placed on a small table surmounted by a mirror: two books, one of which is open, a painted ceramic vase and a hookah. It is presented in a gilded tray frame from the 19th century.