Swatch 10 Steps Production Showcase Vintage Switzerland 1992 - Switzerland, 1992

Child on Horseback

Oil on canvas. Signed MAGO lower right. Maurizio Goracci, aka Mago, is a Roman painter of figurative subjects, with figures that, though well-defined, are always set against a surreal background, shaded in acidic palettes, lending a sense of the fantastic. A recurring theme is a figure on horseback, this time a child, whose face and extremities are recognizable, while the entire body, as well as the horse's silhouette, are covered in bright, floral fabrics, standing out against the undefined, dark background. The work is presented in a frame.

Landscape with Figures and Cattle

Oil on canvas. The work, signed Sorolla lower right and dated 1928, harks back to the style of Joaquim Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923), the renowned Valencian painter who chose to reflect the Mediterranean light in the everyday scenes of his city, in a unique style known as luminism. His works are characterized by their plein air painting, depicting simple people often framed in fishing and sea scenes, capturing customs and traditions, as well as the freedom with which they reflect light and color. In particular, the urban beaches of Valencia, animated by numerous figures, including bathers and others, were a recurring setting in many of his paintings. In this work, the scene is indeed that of a beach, where figures with some cattle pass by, while beached boats and bathers can be glimpsed in the background. The work, which is effectively pictorial, despite being very close to Sorolla's manner and style, is not recognized as authentic by the artist's official archive. It is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. 19th-century Northern European school. In the scene, set on a barren, snow-covered plain with a frozen river flowing through it, a large horse-drawn sleigh is parked on the bank, carrying several people: a woman with a child in her arms is preparing to climb aboard, watched by the driver, while another female figure, holding her child by the hand, walks away across the ice. It looks like a Nordic public transport stop! The work is presented in a late-19th-century frame, which has several missing or damaged parts.

Landscape with Buildings, 1884

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. A landscape painter, Henry Robinson Hall painted primarily views of the Scottish countryside, featuring herds of cattle or rural dwellings, such as this small village nestled in the flat countryside, crossed by a slow-flowing stream; the rosy hues of the sky create a romantic and serene atmosphere. The canvas requires restoration due to several paint losses. Presented in a period gilded frame.

Still Life, 1976

Oil on hardboard. Signed and dated lower right. On the back is a label with the artist's stamps, detailing the work. A Parma-born artist who also lived in Milan for many years, Proferio Grossi created numerous still lifes, paintings of objects in which he sought an aesthetic sense, which he alternated with abstract painting. This composition also belongs to the figurative style, a linear and orderly composition, both in the placement of the objects and in the color choices, of everyday objects indicative of peasant life. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on metal plaque. Delicate portrait of a child, presented in a contemporary embossed and gilded metal frame.

River Landscape with Figures

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Ivan Karpoff, of Russian origin but raised and established as an artist in Italy, gained recognition for his paintings, which oriented themselves toward the Italian Impressionist realism of the late 19th century; he devoted himself primarily to landscapes and portraits. In this work, he depicts a glimpse of flat countryside crossed by a wide river; a woman and her child walk along the path that runs alongside it. Framed.

Landscape with Figures 1929

Oil on panel. Signed and dated lower right. Luigi Comolli, a Milanese artist, distinguished himself for his landscape and still life paintings. His work displays an Impressionist influence, drawn from his formative years in Paris. The work is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Porch with Figures

Oil on cardboard. Signed upper right. Gregorio Mariani is best known for his engravings of Roman antiquities, but he also established himself as a painter of genre scenes, often depicting period figures, and as a portraitist. In this work, which displays an impressionist influence in its nuanced color and interplay of light, he depicts a scene of 18th-century city life: numerous figures, whose flowing women's dresses are visible, wander beneath a high portico, between whose arches opens a glimpse of the sea, crisscrossed by ships. The work is presented in a contemporary wooden frame.

Invasion 1996

Acrylic and sand on canvas. Title, signature, and date on the back. Ferrari's oeuvre has developed entirely around the sign, passing through various interpretative phases. This work belongs to the period after 1995, in which the linearity of the sign gives way to chaos, forms meet and clash freely within the canvas, and the previously used writing breaks in all directions. The sign is completely free of superstructures and is able to express itself in its entirety, manifesting dynamically across the entire surface of the painting. These works are created with black sand from Otranto, a material that allows Ferrari to express the full theatricality of the sign and which still represents the fundamental element of his painting today: through the sand, the sign traces its paths within the space of the painting and beyond.

Embroidery on silk, mounted on a panel. The tapestry dates to the Meiji period (1868-1912), which coincides with the reign of Emperor Mutsuhito (known posthumously as Emperor Meiji), and marked a profound transformation for Japan, moving from an isolated feudal society to a modern industrial and military power. It depicts two tsuru, or Japanese cranes, among flowering chrysanthemum plants. In Japanese culture, the tsuru is a symbol of longevity. The tapestry has been mounted in a frame, with a large portion of the fabric folded on the back.

Landscape

Acrylic on canvas. Signature and title on the back. In the artistic production of Arturo Vermi, who, together with his friends at Cenobio, dedicates himself to the research and analysis of the Sign as an expressive trait, his search for "a calm, a silence [...]" dates back to the post-1985 years, as he himself said: "simple values, in their wild state, essential and pure, and so I found the blank page, the space, but not to fill it, but rather to strip it and leave a silver horizontal sign in the middle of a blue, or two signs in the middle of the entire empty painting, and so I called that series "Landscapes."