Love and Wine

Oil on metal plate, with a trapezoidal shape and a concave center, in which the pictorial scene is inscribed, while the four corners are embossed with decorations. The painting presents a cheerful and gallant scene between a young and attractive innkeeper, who is pouring wine from the barrel into the flasks, and a customer who approaches her to have his glass filled. The painting has slight color losses. It is presented in a glass case frame, in style.

Soap Bubbles

Oil on metal plate, with a trapezoidal shape and a concave center, in which the pictorial scene is inscribed, while the four corners are embossed with decorations. The painting offers a joyful scene: a group of children play with soap bubbles that one of them is blowing, while the others watch them amused and the older girl lifts the little one up so he can catch them! There are slight color losses. It is presented in a style display frame.

Courtship Scene 1887

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right, with additional inscription "Baden" (place?). The scene shows a young couple in 18th-century folk clothes, sitting on a bench under a flowering tree, along a country path: the boy is making the girl try playing the recorder, a nice courtship device. There are no biographical information about the artist, who is of German origin by name and place indicated. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. German school of the mid-20th century. At the bottom right is the signature W. Purschke and the location Munchen. The scene is set inside the study of a high prelate: sitting at his desk he listens to two men who show him a route on a map; at the top left is placed on a shelf a model of a ship: perhaps the bishop is also the owner of the ship, who discusses the next trip with its owner. From the window, closed by a worked grille, you can glimpse the village, with houses with a characteristic Nordic appearance. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on hardboard. Venetian school of the late 19th century. Signed Carlini on the lower left. Moving family scene, with the fisherman just landed embracing his family - wife, mother, children and dog! - who have come to welcome him, while his colleagues unload the catch and arrange the nets. The colors are intense, especially the earthy ones of the figures, the sand and the boat, which contrast with the blue of the sky and the sea. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Gallant Scene 1885

Lithography. Signed lower left. Published by Arthur Tooth in London. The scene is typical of the painter of Italian-Austrian origins: Eugene de Blaas favored cute and often mischievous genre scenes, with girls and young men (often placed in Venetian streets but not only) intent on chatting, gossiping and courtship games. His favorite subject was the common female figure, depicted with an angelic face with diaphanous skin and a mischievous and romantic look, described with bright colors and with excellent technique in her daily environment. The lithograph has widespread humidity stains. In a mid-20th century frame.

Oil painting on canvas. On the left is a young commoner busy with sewing, attaching a button to a piece of fabric; on its right stands the bobbin, a traditional work tool used for making lace. The painting features extensive twentieth-century repaintings; there are also some slight tears necessary for restoration. It is presented in a re-adapted and re-lacquered frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Unsigned, there is a label on the back with attribution to Ferdinand II Wagner (1847 -1927), a German painter appreciated for his decorative painting. The large painting offers, according to an ancient taste, a glimpse of a city market in a Nordic village, with figures in 17th century Flemish clothes. The central part is occupied by a stall full of fruit and vegetables: on the left the seller, sitting with the steelyard hanging above her, is bargaining with the couple of buyers on the right, intent on testing the quality of the products. The painting is presented in a period frame.

The Announcement of Defeat at Waterloo

Oil painting on canvas. French school of the 19th century. The scene, set in the poor bedroom of an elderly war veteran, who is crying in his bed, sees his family telling him the sad news of the defeat at Waterloo, as can be deduced from the sheet of newspaper in the woman's hands, on which the name of the historic location where Napoleon Bonaparte was definitively defeated. The canvas shows signs of previous restorations, in particular the patch corresponding to the female figure is clearly visible. It is presented in an early 20th century setting.

Oil on canvas. Central European school. The scene, set inside a tavern, depicts a fight between two men, who are held by the other patrons and by the innkeeper; on the table, next to the interrupted lunch, the cards of the game that sparked the quarrel. The whole scene is filled with figures, painted in a raw and almost grotesque way, with very pronounced, almost theatrical expressions and poses, underlined even more by the bright colours. Due to these characteristics, the painting fits well into that production of genre scenes based on popular life captured in its most lively and characteristic moments, which started in the seventeenth century in Central Europe, especially in the Netherlands, to replace naturalistic and religious painting with lighter subjects, and which in Italy found a particular expression in the "Bamboccianti School", developed in Rome by Flemish and Italian painters. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European School. The scene is set in the shop of a barber, who is intent on cutting a man's hair under the watchful eye of other customers and, above all, of some women with children, one of whom even observes the result of his work with glasses. Glasses were introduced in art first as a sign of distinction, and later also as a sign of scientific attention, progressively delineating the figure of the scholar, doctor and surgeon: in this painting, they actually underline the irony of the scene, and they are used as a tool for a close female examination of the spouse's haircut! The whole scene is filled with figures, painted in a crude and almost grotesque way, with very marked, almost theatrical expressions and poses, underlined as well by the bright colours. Due to these characteristics, the painting fits well into that production of genre scenes based on popular life captured in its most lively and characteristic moments, which originated in the seventeenth century in Central Europe, especially in the Netherlands, to replace naturalistic and religious painting with lighter subjects, and which in Italy found a particular expression in the "Bamboccianti School", developed in Rome by Flemish and Italian painters. The painting has been restored and relined. It is presented in an antique frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. Inside a rural kitchen, a peasant family allows themselves a moment of celebration: the father plays the mandolin, listened to by the little girl who seems to want to dance, assisted by her mother, and by the other women of the house, smiling as they carry out their domestic tasks. The production of the Neapolitan painter Giuseppe Giardiello always looked to the folklore of Neapolitan rural and peasant life, painting, with intimate and delicate tones, both scenes of domestic life and landscape views animated by figures. The work is presented in a contemporary 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 painting on canvas. The scene depicts a chamber concert: in the centre, the spinet player, behind him the recorder player and on the right side the maestro who conducts, who listens intently and moves his right hand to accompany the musical movements; behind the trio, ladies and gentlemen listen smiling and participating. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a 19th century frame.

Interior scene

Oil painting on canvas. Not signed, but on the back there is a dedication "Alla signora Clelia Mazzioli, con stima Gaetano Bellei 23 gennaio 1909". The big scene, set in a popular kitchen, sees a woman reading cards to two girls, who ask for explanations by pointing to the figures that appear and seem to compare them with a text leaning on the chair. The work recalls the painting of Gaetano Bellei, due to the strong realism with which the painter painted above all scenes of daily peasant life; he is considered a master of the depiction of human affections and of human reactions and sensations. The painting has slight drops of color. It is proposed in a stylish 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.

The Monks Lunch

Oil on canvas. Genoese school of the eighteenth century. Inside a large room with arched windows opening onto the street, a group of friars seated on the ground are sharing a simple meal, placed on a white cloth. The scene refers to the sphere of Alessandro Magnasco known as Lissandrino (1667 -1749), a Genoese artist considered one of the most original painters of the Italian eighteenth century, who distinguished himself in popular genre painting and, in particular, in the production of scenes from the life of Capuchin or Camaldolese friars engaged in the most varied activities, from studying in the library to confession, from the work of sharpeners or carpenters in the convent workshops to the simple recollection around the fire: in these works you can appreciate all the expressive freedom of the artist\'s brush. moves on the canvas with quick touches to describe flames, fireplaces, cats, books, dogs, poor bowls, lenses, books, poor patched clothes, chairs and stools, in short, a whole daily world of gestures and things built with a very special and unmistakable technique, made of a mixture of lively color and almost all played on monochrome, on which a few, skilful strokes of light descend to give shape and consis tence to the bony figures of the monks. The author of the work proposed here was certainly trained in the Magnasco area and was inspired by his style, although it is more sedate, without the flashes and interpretative freedom, often irreverent or ironic, towards the figures of the friars; he was able to take up the play of chiaroscuro, lights and shadows, which flow from a monochrome in the shades of browns, still creating a work of excellent pictorial quality. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a gilded frame from the early 1900s.