Mirror Mid 19th Century

Landscape with Figures

Oil on table. Signed lower right. On the back there is a stamp with the writing "Giuseppe Casciaro - Naples" and that of the Galleria Cordusio in Milan. The landscape view offers a path between trees in a green countryside, with two figures sitting in conversation. It is the work of the Neapolitan artist Giuseppe Casciaro, painter and teacher of the Institute of Fine Arts of his city, who was essentially a landscape painter and in particular produced views of the surroundings of Naples, Irpinia (Nusco) and Puglia. The work is presented in a style frame.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the nineteenth century. The composition offers a bouquet of colorful flowers that emerge from a straw hat placed on the ground, while, resting on a capital, a cascade of green branches with red flowers emerges from another vase. In the background, a barren landscape, with mountains in the distance, while the blue sky is invaded by gray clouds. The unsigned work is very close to the manner of Luigi Scrosati (1814-1869), the Milanese painter who distinguished himself for the depictions of floral still lifes. The painting is presented in a beautiful coeval gilded frame, in wood and tablet modeled with friezes.

Oil on canvas. Lombard school of the nineteenth century. The vase composition presents a bunch of variegated flowers in delicate pastel colors, flanked by a thin and elegant blue glass vase containing a single iris; the vases rest on an elegant wooden console with mirror that frames the composition. The unsigned work is very close to the manner of Luigi Scrosati (1814-1869), the Milanese painter who distinguished himself for the depictions of floral still lifes. The painting is presented in a beautiful coeval gilded frame, in wood and tablet modeled with friezes.

Oil on canvas. The nice scene is set outside the gate of a garden (a park?) Surrounded by a high crumbling wall: a girl plays on the ground, surrounded by scratching hens. On the back there is a label with an old attribution to Achille Formis Befani (1830-1906), a Neapolitan artist who then worked in Milan, conforming to the Lombard school; he dealt with both landscape and figure painting. The painting is presented in a coeval gilt frame.

Shepherd's Scene

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. A young shepherdess leads her flock of sheep to the entrance of a wood, in a green hilly countryside. On the frame, a label shows in addition to the name of the painter, also a more specific title "Moutons dans la forêt de Barbizon", placing the scene on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau, near the charming village of Barbizon, which became famous thanks to the painters 19th century French landscape painters (Rousseau, Millet, Daubigny, Corot) who even founded the Barbizon School art movement here, considered a precursor of Impressionism, which lasted from 1830 to 1875, a period during which artists came to enjoy the peace of this quiet village and the beauty of the surrounding nature. Charles Ferdinand Ceramano, pseudonym of the Belgian painter Semain, also settled in Barbizon in 1872, where he devoted himself to painting animals and landscapes, pastoral scenes with sheep and sheepfolds. Restored and relined, the painting shows slight color losses. It is presented in a late 19th century frame, with slight shortcomings.

Venice Doge's Palace

Oil on plywood. Signed lower right. Painter of vast and complex production for variety of subjects (historical scenes, landscapes, genre images, portraits, religious paintings) Giuseppe Riva was born in Bergamo, where he trained by attending the Carrara Academy school; later he lived in Rome where he refined his painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of the Capital, presenting, among other things, both oils and watercolors at the first edition of the Roman National Exhibition. He returned to his hometown in 1883, exhibiting at the Carrara Academy and obtaining more orders for religious paintings which he sometimes created together with his father, also a painter. Here is a beautiful view of his of the Doge's Palace in Venice, seen from the lagoon. The work has some retouching. It is presented in a contemporary frame.

Written in beautiful handwriting on Yisebiao-type silk-edged paper (one-color frame). Artist's signature and seal in red, in the lower left corner. A hanging scroll is one of many traditional Chinese ways of displaying and displaying painting and calligraphy. Hanging scrolls are generally intended to be displayed for short periods of time and are then rolled up to be tied up and stored safely; they are rotated according to the season or occasion, and are never permanently exhibited. The surface to be painted of the paper or silk can be mounted with decorative borders of brocade silk. This roll is presented in a frame, stretched out on a panel.

Portrait of Young Woman

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The beautiful portrait features a rosy face framed in a cloud of white, that of a fluffy fur collar that fades into the background of almost the same color. It is of great efficacy and emotional intensity: light in the colors and in the fluffiness of the strokes, rendered with rapid brushstrokes and without outlines, it contrasts the almost childish charm of the pink bow in the hair, with the intense and brooding gaze of the young woman. Another female portrait made by Aleardo Villa in 1892 and sold at auction in London in 1995, which features the same woman seated in the same white dress, has been considered and titled as a portrait of the great actress Eleonora Duse. Appreciated painter, illustrator and advertiser, Villa studied under the direction of Bertini at the Brera Academy. Very skilled in portraying the faces and the female figure, sensual and dressed in fashion, towards the end of his career Villa abandoned painting to devote himself exclusively to advertising graphics: he was appreciated poster designer at the Officine Grafiche Ricordi in Milan. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Oil on canvas. Of this suggestive and fascinating scene of a stormy sea, with ships at the mercy of the waves, there are different versions, inspired by the most important and well-known canvas, the one created by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), of the same size and preserved at the Castello Sforzesco from Milan. This proposal is very close to a similar work from the Gnecchi collection in Milan, certainly inspired by the Guardesca production: it differs in small details (the color of the flag on the ship on the right, the inclinations of the masts of the ships on the left and in the center, the shape of the clouds), which suggest a good copy, made in the nineteenth century, in the wake of the interest and suggestion for the naturalistic theme and, in particular, for the power of Nature, which developed above all in Italy during the period of Romanticism. On the back of the frame there is a paper label with an inventory number and the initials C.G. (Gnecchi Collection?). On the first canvas, the painting has a very small tear on the right. It is presented in a late 19th century frame.

Oil painting on canvas. Portrait of a young bourgeois woman, with her head encircled by a garland of roses and the party dress, taken outdoors and turned three-quarters, with her head turned back to look at the painter. On the first canvas, the work has some small drops of color and a small hole. It is presented in a gilded frame from the end of the 19th century, adapted.

Oil on canvas. Italian school. With a romantic atmosphere, the landscape with the hill full of trees, the stream crossed by a bridge and the young villager carrying the amphora of water on her head, is surmounted by a sky mottled of different colors, with darker clouds that fade away into the pink of the dawning sky. On the first canvas, the painting shows small drops in colour. It is presented in a stylish frame.