Stormy Navy Oil on Canvas Italy XIX Century

Oil on canvas. Tacito in the Annales tells the deail of Seneca's death wanted by Nero who was Seneca's pupil and who accused ihm of taking part in a conspiracy against him. This theme had been often painted because of the intense pathos that it tranmits: Seneca chose to suicide himself rather than being killed by an executioner and in the painting is represented on his deathbed with the doctor that is witnessing his death while he is dictating his last wishes and his wife Paolina is crying. The painting has several color drops that need to be restored. Displayed in a coeval gilded frame from 20th century.

Oil on canvas. It probably depicts a tragic anti-Semitic event. On the right, a wounded soldier in Russian uniform is witnessing the dramatic scene of a slaughtered family while the rabbi is preying for them. The broken window and the upside down drawers make clear that the killers broke into the house. On the left of the mirror, there is a Jewish writing that may suggest the location. The word may be translated as 'Ciro' and may be referring to the areas of Georgia and Azerbaijan near the Kura (river flowing from Turkey to the Caspian Sea, known as 'Ciro' in 1800s). The painting, restored and relined, is presented in a frame of the 1800s.

The Astrea Ship 1904

Gouache on paper. Signed and dated 1904 bottom right. On the left, the name of the ship. Antonio De Simone belongs to the category of the Marinist masters, a category that was born in the 16th century and was received with great fervour in the Countries with great seafaring traditions, from the Netherlands to England, from France to Spain, in Italy and almost everywhere in the rest of the European continent, using everything related to seafaring as a subject. The highest popularity of this art genre was achieved in the 19th century and continued until the 1940s, in the last period of sailing and the advent of steamships. In Italy, the artists from the Campania and Liguria schools of painting and sea produced many paintings, some of which are called "portraits of ships": the production of the Neapolitan brothers De Simone is a part of this group. They specialized in painting portraits of important and famous luxury ships, both sailboats and steamboats. The gouache is presented in a frame.

Composed of woodblocked sheets, sewn together and partly colored, with matching figures and texts. The group consists of 23 booklets, of which two in three copies and one in four copies; another couple has the same cover but different contents. The booklets can be considered as "manga" of the nineteenth century: the word "manga" still today can designate many different productions, such as single cartoons, scattered drawings, more elaborate illustrations, comic strips, comic books, as well as animated drawings. Therefore, starting from the assumption that there is no "manga form" but different ways of conceiving objects and graphic forms all denominated with this word, the term manga can be attested in literary and essayistic use in Japan as early as the eighteenth century to indicate, as mentioned above, drawings and sketches. But it is from the first half of the nineteenth century that Katsushika Hokusai's 15 volumes of illustrations, studies, graphic entertainment and detailed bichromatic prints became established, thanks to the progressive publication, starting from 1814. If, on the other hand, we want to give the word the more specific meaning of “stories drawn in sequence”, then the debut must be placed in the second half of the nineteenth century, similarly to what happened in Europe and the United States for comics. The booklets are in good condition.

Female Portrait

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The extremely sensual portrait of the woman in skimpy clothes and in a languid pose belongs to the peculiar portrait production of the French painter and engraver Charles Joshua Chaplin. Famous in the Parisian artistic environment, he received commissions from the Empress Eugenia. His great technical skills are well appreciated in his engravings, which are distinguished by thin lines and extreme graphic precision, while in the paintings he impresses his coloristic ability of "tone on tone" where the colors fade from white to silver-gray. to pink in portraits of ladies that match the great English portrait painters of the 18th century. The work is presented in a style frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed top left. Further signature, Rome location and date on the back. Riccardo Pellegrini, a Milanese painter, was a pupil of Domenico Morelli and was educated in the climate of romanticism. He was a landscape painter and genre painter, but he also created valuable still lifes, with bright colors and a precise and realistic drawing. In this composition, two pheasants are lying in the center surrounded by pomegranates and bunches of black grapes, while in the background on the right, thanks to the reflection of light, two bottles of wine are barely visible. The painting is presented in a carved wooden frame from the early 1900s.

Watercolor on paper. Signed Borrani and dated 1881 in the lower left corner. Meticulous and detailed glimpse of a Gothic church interior, in particular the pulpit decorated with panels carved in bas-relief with scenes from the Passion; in the background, the bright and colorful mosaic windows. Despite the signature, it is not attributable to the Tuscan painter Odoardo Borrani, a talented Macchiaiolo. The painting is presented in a styled frame.

Landscape with Houses 1875

Oil on the table. Signed and dated lower right. Further signature and date on the back. Artist from the province of Pisa, trained first at the Academy of his city and later at that of Florence, thanks to contacts with Telemaco Signorini and Giovanni Fattori, Francesco Gioli landed on painting from life with a rural subject, creating works - such as the one presented here - which constitute the expression of Tuscan Naturalism, in which he managed to convey the nostalgia of the past and the discomfort with the advance of progress. At the beginning of the twentieth century he oriented his production on Florentine views, giving particular emphasis to the atmospheric and luministic rendering in an impressionist sense. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

The Friar and the Painter 1887

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Genre scene set in a museum environment, where a young painter is trying her hand at reproducing a work, under the stern gaze of a friar. It is the work of Giulio Sommati di Mombello, a Turin artist from a noble family, who was artistically trained at the Albertina Academy in Turin, the city where he lived and worked, while exhibiting in all Italian cities. He painted genre scenes, portraits, urban views (particularly his markets in Turin), landscapes, and from the first decade of the 1900s, also numerous marinas, following his discovery and falling in love with the Ligurian Riviera. He had among his admirers the King (from whom he obtained the appointment as Knight of the Kingdom) Queen Margherita, Elisabetta di Sassonia Duchess of Genoa, the Promoter of Turin, Princes, municipal and national art galleries and art lovers scattered in many regions of 'Italy. He is considered "certainly a great poet and his poetry was expressed in the colors of nature (mother and teacher) that he portrayed on the canvas." The work is presented in a style frame.

Arabic coffee

Oil on the table. signed lower left. An orientalist subject who proposes the Arab coffee as a place also responsible for smoking the hookah, an activity in which two men are intent: the scene is set outdoors, in front of the vaulted entrance to the room, with the minaret in the background. The work is part of the most characteristic production of Fabio Fabbi, a Bolognese painter who, following his travels to the East starting from 1886, devoted himself almost exclusively to this pictorial genre, in which he was able to associate the themes of exoticism and travel with a quick and lively sketching. From the early 1900s, Fabbi also devoted himself to a career as an illustrator, illustrating numerous novels of classical literature, but preferring those of adventure, in particular the Salgarian novels, in which he was able to express his passion for exoticism. The proposed work is presented in a style frame.

Oil on canvas. Unsigned but pleasantly made, the large portrait shows a little girl placed outdoors, on a hillside path near a lake, surrounded by spring flowers; she is dressed in pink, holds a tangerine in one hand and a small parasol in the other that matches the socks and the orange lilies blooming along the path, around her neck she wears a necklace with large yellow beads. Despite the vivacity of the colors and the setting, the little girl is extremely serious and composed, almost sad. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Portrait of an austere gentleman, in a meditative pose, a man of letters or a scholar depicted in his study, with books scattered on the desk behind him. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.