C. Joshua Chaplin Oil on Canvas France XIX Century - Female Portrait

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.

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.

Oil painting on canvas. North European school of the 19th century. The romantic taste pervades this nocturnal landscape, illuminated by the light of the full moon, barely veiled by scattered thin clouds; on the country path, which runs alongside the torrential course of a river, two figures of wayfarers can be glimpsed, a child holding a woman's hand. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the end of the 19th century.

Vase, Roman excavations, 1860

Oil painting on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Further signature, date and title on the back. On the frame there is a stamp from an important private collection. The work proposes a composition of an amphora and a painted ceramic plate, surrounded on the right by roses. Milanese painter and decorator, Luigi Scrosati initially attended the Brera Academy, which he soon abandoned to devote himself to numerous trips abroad, in particular to Paris. Already from the beginning of his activity, in the 40s, he worked as a painter of still lifes strongly influenced by French examples, in particular from the Lyon school. Alongside the easel and watercolor production, dominated by the specialization of still life of flowers, Scrosati was very active as an interior decorator, often engaged in team work alongside architects and project managers, but always with considerable autonomy and a characteristic style , substantially eclectic and aimed at a reinterpretation of the styles of the past. The debut in this area, towards the end of 1842, consists of a cycle of frescoes in the residence of San Fiorano (LO) owned by Giorgio Guido Pallavicino Trivulzio, for which Scrosati decorated a Gothic room, a Rococo living room and a small entrance compartment. His frescoes can be found in numerous villas in and around Milan, works in which Scrosati refers to the styles of the past, re-proposing eighteenth-century suggestions, but also of the Baroque. The decorations in the Dante's Cabinet first and then in other rooms in the Palazzo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan (now home to the Museum of the same name) were instead of neo-medieval taste, made with the Bertini team of which Scorsati was part. The disease that struck Scrosati in the lower limbs in 1857, making him ill, probably prevented him from continuing his activity as a decorator, forcing him to fall back on floral easel painting, which led him to produce still lifes of flowers, but also portraits or fake bas-reliefs with garlands of flowers or even interiors and genre scenes, in which he was influenced by the German and Viennese production of the Biedermeier type and the French one of the Lyon school. In 1862 Scrosati was commissioned to direct a new Ornato course at the Brera Academy, with particular reference to flower painting and relations with industry, a course set up by the Braidense institution to expand the already flourishing school of ornamental painting. The work is presented in a style frame.

Maria Dolente

Marble bas-relief. Engraved signature along the left margin. Born in Cannobbio (on Lake Maggiore), Giulio Branca was introduced to the art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and later attended G. Strazza's school of nude drawing and sculpture at the Brera Academy. Born in Cannobio on 13 December 1850 to Ludovico, he was introduced to art by the Cannobio sculptor Bergonzoli, and attended the school of the nude and G. Strazza's school of sculpture at the Brera Academy. He made about four hundred sculptures, including memorials, funerary monuments and portrait busts. Branca also took part, following a competition, in the completion of the high wall of the cathedral of Como, which had remained unfinished for centuries, sculpting several figures in white marble for the façade and the altar between 1897 and 1900. The work presented here is a bas-relief showing a half-bust of the grieving Madonna flanked by two pious women. It is presented in a coeval wooden frame from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Oil on canvas. Italian School. The scene, full of figures, depicts the Holy Family walking towards Egypt, guided by an Angel and assisted by other angels above. The figures are inserted in a typical Italian landscape, they are depicted in a very earthly dimension: the Child, even with a halo, sleeps peacefully in His Mother's hands; Mary, who is wearing an unusual pilgrim's hat, met her husband's Joseph gaze, who is reassuring her with a sweet gesture - he is putting a hand on her knee-, while he is talking with the Angel who is showing them the way. Relined, the painting has some paint losses that need restoration. It is in an adapted frame, from the late '800 - early '900.

Oil on canvas. Italian School. Still life with fruit (watermelon, pears, peaches and pomegranates) and vegetables (pumpkin, califlowers) standing on a surface; on the right there is the ladder of a hemhouse with an hem inside. The painting needs to be cleaned and restore because of some drops of color. Revival frame.