The Painter and the Young Woman Oil on Canvas France XIX Century - The Artist and the Young Woman

Glimpse of Ruined Temple

Pastels on paper. Signed lower left in pencil. Evocative work by the Danish artist Arild Rosenkrantz, symbolist in style, who was a painter but also a master glassmaker, sculptor, illustrator. His production was inspired by the anthroposophical theories of Rudolf Steiner and by Goethe's philosophy. WJ Goethe in his "Theory of Colors" hopes that painters treasure the moral action of colors, revealed by him, to make their works more alive and pulsating. Even Rudolf Steiner glimpsed in Goethe's lesson a mine of very useful knowledge to bring about a renewal of painting. In particular, we owe Steiner the very important discovery of those intimate sensations that could be defined as "movements of the soul" and which, in the contemplation of colors, are experienced in the depths of the subconscious. Rosenkrantz translates this search for intimate sensations into his works, transforming a landscape like the one proposed here into an experience of the soul, through the use of almost impalpable, rarefied colors and lights, which introduce a dreamlike dimension. The work is presented in a frame.

The Showdown

Oil painting on canvas. French school of the 19th century. In the tasty scene, a satirical episode linked to the French revolution is presented: on a carriage that bears on the door the three lilies of France with the initials LR, referring to the royal dynasty (Louis roi?), some people seem to want to leave hastily, while an innkeeper holding the bill tries to get paid, however held back by a guard. At the top left, the sign of the tavern reads "L'agneau a moderé", or "The lamb has moderated", an ironic expression meaning that until then it was tolerated (the regime) thanks to the sacrifice of someone, but the moment of reckoning has now come. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower right. Mary breastfeeding her little son, under the loving gaze of Saint Anne: this is the theme of a sacred nature but proposed in a very human key, which underlines the sweetness of the mother-child relationship and of the family. Giuseppe Ghiringhelli was mainly a landscape and portrait painter, but in his production there are also various representations of the sacred Maternity which, like this one proposed here, are permeated with intimacy and sweetness and characterized by intense lights effects: in this work in particular it is suggestive the effect of the light that radiates from the little head of the child placed in the centre, on the faces bent over him of the two women, and then reverberates on the clothes and in the background, where the shadows created can be glimpsed. The work is presented in a frame from the first half of the 1900s.

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.

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 the table. Italian school of the second half of the 19th century. The painting, a garland of multicolored and variegated flowers, effectively takes up the pictorial ways of the seventeenth century. The wood has large openings and cuts at the joints of the boards. The painting is presented in a gilded frame from the early 1900s.

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 1940s, 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. The painting celebrates the memory of a deceased person: it represents a tombstone with the name of the dead and the dates, laying on the bare ground in a desert landscape, faded with a sunset in the background, but surrounded by a garland of lively flowers. A white lily stands out from all, stretched out upwards, but with a broken stem, forcing the corolla to turn towards the ground: it is the "memento mori", the symbol of the transience of life. The beautiful painting is presented in a gilded coeval frame.

Oil on canvas. The romantic landscape portrays a verdant countryside near a river, under a leaden sky full of grey clouds; on the trail in the foreground, some hunters, right off the moored boat, follow their dogs towards the stand of trees. The painting, in good condition, is presented in a coeval frame, decorated with leafy volutes at the corners, with some defects and signs of restoration.