Empire Mirror Maple and Gilded Wood Italy XIX Century - Tuscany First Quarter 19th Century

Male Portrait

Crayon and chalk on paper. Signed lower left. At the bottom right is the wording "from photography". The painter and poet from Portogruaro mainly devoted himself to sacred decorative painting for the churches of the Veneto and Piedmont. The portrait proposed here is presented in a coeval frame, which needs restoration due to multiple deficiencies.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the 19th century. Portrait of a curvy and composed lady, in sober house dress. Restored and relined, it is presented in a period frame.

Stable interior

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The work was previously acquired at the Sotheby's auction in Milan on 10/12/2007. It was exhibited in 1991 in the exhibition "Giovanni Sottocornola. Images from a collection" held in Milan at the Silbernagl Gallery. After an initial pictorial phase dedicated to portraits and still lifes, in the 1880s Giovanni Sottocornola approached social themes, which were becoming the favorite subjects of young Lombard painters attentive to the poorest aspects of society, linked to the adoption of original artistic techniques. Sottocornola embraced the practice of pointillist painting, of which he wrote in 1895 "For now it is certain, I am convinced that there is no other painting more capable of conveying certain sensations than this one". However, this type of painting remained entirely focused on light, on its uncertain tonal vibrations, as happens in the Interior of a stable, created towards the end of the 1980s, where the plays of light and shadow play and create the effects visual in the brushstrokes of color played on a few chromatic ranges, those of browns, expressed in a wide variety of shades. The work is presented in a period frame.

Oil on paper applied to canvas. The four works propose pastoral subjects, animated by shepherds with their herds and their faithful dogs, sometimes at rest on the side of the road, in two scenes also flanked by fruit sellers. The works are inspired (as well as by the citation on the back of one of them) by the production of Francesco Londonio, the Milanese artist of the 18th century who made a name for himself for his rural and pastoral scenes, in a repertoire of tasty snapshots of peasant life. The four paintings are presented in contemporary gilded frames, with small defects.

Oil painting on canvas. Of ancient taste, the landscape, verdant and with the village at the center, is animated in the center by figures of shepherds and a wayfarer on horseback who water the animals in the stream, conversing with another wayfarer passing over the bridge. Restored, it is presented in a coeval adapted frame.

Oil on cardboard. Italian school of the 19th century. The pastoral scene sees on the left a flock of sheep and cows drinking and refreshed in the river; on the right bank, under a tree, the shepherdess is resting with her little son who, after having eaten their meal, play with a wooden loom. The bucolic scene is serene and peaceful. The painting is presented in a late 19th century 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 with relief application of highly material colour, to define the crowns and initials at the top. The painting takes up the style of the ancient icons, both in the subject and in the gold painting to define some details, as well as in the use of Cyrillic for the initials at the top. Moreover, the inscription Rome appears in Latin characters on Mary's crown, probably to indicate the place of purchase. Already relined, the painting shows in the painted part some traces of previous restoration, rather coarse, and some small drops of color.

Oil painting on canvas. This portrait of a woman dressed in a very abundant dress that hides her shapes and with her face covered by a black mask is curious: the visible portion of the face suggests a young and smiling face, the furtive attitude of one who tries to hide behind the heavy marquee, suggests a joke in progress, in theme with a party, a pleasure-loving moment. The painting is presented in a coeval frame.

Little Girl

Oil on the table. On the back there are traces of the signature and two labels from Art galleries, the Bottega d'arte of Livorno and the Galleria Manzoni of Milan, bearing the name of the author, the title and the technical data of the work. Livornese by birth, Ludovico Tommasi was trained near the Macchiaioli current, developing a strong sensitivity for color, which led him to create realist works pervaded by harmonious chromatisms. The work is presented in a stylish frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Northern European school of the 19th century. Family portrait of three girls, whose marked resemblance in facial features, smile and witty and mischievous gaze, is underlined by the almost identical clothes they wear, whose bright colors enliven the scene and on which the laces of the necklines stand out, exquisitely painted; the youngest in the center, still a child, has a slightly less worked dress and a less elaborate hairstyle, in keeping with her age. The painting is presented in a late 19th century frame that has been adapted and regilded.

Park

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower right. On the back there is a label from the Manzoni Art Gallery in Milan, with the data of the work. A leading exponent of 19th-century Lombard painting which was always linked to the love for the real, Pompeo Mariani was also called "the Italian impressionist", due to the influence in his works of French impressionism and those experiences, not only cultural, which constituted the era of the Belle Époque, which the artist lived between Milan, Bordighera, Nice and Montecarlo. In this small watercolor Mariani offers a glimpse of a city park, adorned with statues along the gate. The painting is presented in a period frame.