PAINTINGS OF THE '900
 

Oil painting on canvas. The scene is set inside a popular farmhouse: in front of the large fireplace, where a large pot is boiling above the fire, a woman sits with a child in her arms, while two other women wait on the threshold looking out, with the plate in their hands, and another child eats his soup sitting on no stool. The scene is dominated by earthy colours, with a single glimpse of light entering from the threshold, framing a blue-white sky. The painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Landscape with Mill

Oil on cardboard. Signed lower right. Carlo Vittori, an artist from Cremona, mainly portrayed the landscapes of his Po Valley. Here he proposes a countryside inhabited by a mill, to which the water arrives through an overhead canalization. The painting is presented in chronicle.

Interior of Stable

Oil on hardboard. Signed lower right. The Cremonese painter Carl Vittori specialized in landscape views of his Po Valley lands or in scenes with animal figures, always linked to peasant life, like this stable interior inhabited by a donkey. The chromatic and luminous choices are suggestive. The work is presented in a frame.

Seated Figure

Oil on wooden board. Signed lower right. The painter Salvatore Sportelli, of Apulian origin but who lived for a long time in Lodi, where he taught (a posthumous exhibition of his was recently held in the city), produced numerous popular figures and genre scenes characterized by a look at post-impressionism. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on cardboard. Unidentified signature lower right. Landscape glimpse of a peasant countryside, with farmers approaching the wheat field, full of golden ears, while to the left of the path there is a shady spot, which leads to a fence. The painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame, with small defects.

Mountain Landscape

Oil painting on canvas. Signed lower left. The Milanese painter Gino Federici specialized in Alpine views, as in this view, where in the foreground a flock of sheep drinks water from a stream, in the wide valley, under steep peaks. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame. It shows signs of previous restoration.

Mixed media on paper. Delicate oval portrait of a young man, whose face and hair fade into the pastel colors of the background, which seems to be one with his figure. The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

Female Figure

Pencil on paper. Signed lower right. Celada's painting is capable of blocking reality in time and space, in a way that appears detached, analytical and scientifically exact (colours, reflections, transparencies), but communicating - as opposed to a total unreality - a great narrative pathos. Proposed here is the study in red pencil of a female figure: the woman was always at the center of Celada's production, who both in portraiture and in figure studies presents a female body, firm and classicizing both in forms and in references to the painting of the past, Work presented in a frame.

Three Drinkers and an Angel 1942

Mixed media on board. Signed lower right. On the back further signature, title and date. Beppe Porcheddu, an important Italian illustrator and ceramist, was also a painter. In his evolutionary artistic path "it would seem that the artist has poured "the illustrator" into the painter and vice versa "the painter has prevailed in the illustration". From his first production, alongside his aptitude for the grotesque, Porcheddu showed a natural inclination for what was defined as a "perfect trio of symbols of a world (the medieval one) that expressed itself through metaphors like no other previous civilization" . In this panel, that tendency towards the grotesque is well expressed in the figures of the three drinkers, presented with crude features, clear lines and marked angles, while the figure of the angel appears evanescent, blurred, framed in the single light that comes from the open door.

Female Nude

Sanguine on paper. signed lower right. Celada, who loved to paint women both in portraiture and in his figure studies, proposes a female body, firm and classicizing both in forms and in references to the painting of the past. Celada';s painting is capable of blocking in time and space reality, in a way that appears detached, analytical and scientifically exact (colours, reflections, transparencies), but communicating - as opposed to a total unreality - a great narrative pathos. The work is presented in a 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.

Watercolor on paper. Signature L. Rossi at the bottom left. It is a quick portrait, in pencil and then watercoloured, of two young ladies in winter walking clothes, shot in almost full length. The drawing is presented in a gilded and carved frame from the late 19th century, which has several defects.

Watercolor on paper. Signature L. Rossi at the bottom left. They are two young ladies in winter walking clothes, shot in almost full length. The drawing is presented in a gilded and carved frame from the late 19th century, which has several defects and traces of previous restoration

Amarici (Etiopian Figures) 1930s

Pencil on paper. Signature, title and location lower right. In the second half of the 1930s, Contardo Barbieri left as a volunteer for the campaign in East Africa. From this period there are some works that propose oriental subjects, such as these characters of the Ethiopian people called Amharic because they were natives of Amhara, a region of central-northern Ethiopia where the city of Dessié is located. In frame.

Portraits of Children, 1930

Photographs retouched with pastels. Signed bottom right. On the back of three of them is the date 11 November 1930. A photographic sequence of the portrait of three children is shown, who slightly change their pose or expression. They are the work of the British photographer Eva Barrett who, after an initial experience as a painter, decided to dedicate herself to photography, thinking that "it was better to be a first-rate photographer than a second-rate [painter]. Having moved to Rome in 1913, she established her laboratory here. Pictorialist, with a small camera, Eva Barrett created her own photographic method that was reminiscent of drawing sketches: she applied a few very light pencil strokes, managing to create subdued images but with particularly dense blacks, thus maintaining the characteristics of photography and portraits. In this way he was very successful and his career took off. Eva Barrett photographed the Italian royal family, the wives and children of foreign ambassadors, as well as received numerous commissions from European royalty in Belgium, Sweden, Greece. The four portraits are presented in style frames.

Oil painting on canvas. At the bottom left there is an unidentified signature. Large composition of variegated flowers, placed outdoors on bare, deserted ground. The colors of the flowers are applied with a certain material consistency, making them stand out and emerge from the almost monochromatic background. The painting has some dirt splashes in the lower left corner. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Signed Bertolotti lower right. It offers a glimpse of a forest, with sparse, tall plants and an undergrowth full of rocks covered by a green lawn; through the trees, a gash opens up in the center, flooded with light, framing rugged mountain peaks. The painting, with a strong scenographic impact, is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil painting on canvas. The composition looks at the productions of the 17th century and offers a table richly laden with fruit trays, baskets of cherries, baskets with peaches and bunches of grapes with decorative vine leaves, terrines with seeds, and glasses, surmounted by a curtain and placed on a fabric. Color was used in a highly material manner in some points, to underline for example the stems of grape leaves, or to create reflections of light on the fruit. The painting presented in a style frame.

Ecija

Oil painting on canvas. Signature and location bottom left. The Spanish painter José Pedraza Ostos dedicated himself mainly to landscape painting, created with an impressionist imprint, and which mainly portrayed glimpses and views of the places in Andalusia he inhabited. Here is a glimpse of the riverside part of the Andalusian town of Ecija, characterized by numerous water mills. The painting is presented in a late 19th century frame.