Joy by Giovanni Tizzano - Italy First Half of the 20th Century

Vase of Carnations

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The Pisan artist was best known as an engraver (he taught engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence) but also devoted himself to painting, which he achieved with remarkable originality and extraordinary poetic depth, using colors that he himself defined as "the colors of the soul." Although he favored popular subjects, flowers were also often the subject of his works, so much so that a section of a recent (2023) retrospective dedicated to him in Pisa was titled "The Colors and Flowers of the Soul". The work is presented in a contemporary frame.

The Proposal

Oil on canvas. The scene depicts a marriage proposal between two commoners and is a copy of the work by Eugène Von Blass (1843-1931) from 1887. The Italian-Austrian artist often depicted this theme, as well as other genre scenes of simple, everyday life. The work is presented in a period gilded frame.

View of the Matterhorn

Three oil paintings on cardboard. All three panels are signed in the lower right corner. The three paintings together create a single, continuous composition: the central panel depicts the summit of Mount Cervino, while the two lower panels extend the mountain range on both sides to the most famous peak. Alessandro Catalani painted views and landscapes, in oils and watercolors, characterized by soft colors and loose brushstrokes. The work is presented in a contemporary frame (to be restored).

Oil on canvas. The signature G. Freye appears at the bottom left, which may attribute the work to Georg Hermann Freye (1844-1921), a Dresden artist known primarily for his religious and historical works. The genre scene draws on subjects and styles from 17th- and 18th-century Dutch painting. Set in a private home, it depicts a family meal, with the stern father speaking to his more light-hearted son, under the smiling and complicit gaze of his mother. The work is presented in a period frame.

Fishing Boats

Color lithographs. Signed in pencil. The French painter and engraver Guinegault created numerous views and landscapes, both of Paris and the coasts of northern France, often featuring fishermen. The two lithographs are presented in bamboo frames from the 1960s.

Oil on canvas. Artist unknown (inconsistent signature G. Induno at the bottom). Genre scene inside a rather humble home, in which an old man sitting on his bed welcomes the embrace of his visiting grandson. The tenderness of the gesture of affection and dedication between the two figures contrasts with the poverty of the dwelling. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Fake fresco tear. Emulating an ancient fresco, the face of Saint Anthony the Abbot is depicted here, recognizable by several of his iconographic features: he is dressed in a friar's habit with a scapular, holding a staff to which is attached the bell used by friars and hermits to announce their arrival for almsgiving, and with his right hand in blessing, from which emerges a tongue of fire, a symbol of both illness, punishment, and the dominion of the underworld by Good. The work is framed by a listel.

Landscape

Oil on panel. Signed 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. Presented in a mid-20th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. Early 1900s. This high-quality painting was created by an anonymous artist inspired by the works of Vittorio Reggianini (1858-1938), who enjoyed enormous success with his interior and living room scenes, depicting women or children engaged in everyday, often recreational, pursuits, like these two ladies enjoying tea and chatting amiably. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Mixed technique on paper. Initials AS at lower right. A bouquet of roses stands out against a blue background. The painting is presented in a contemporary ebonized frame, decorated with gilded carvings.

Oil on canvas. Signed and located on the lower left margin "Roma, Enrico Scifoni" The name of the sitter is cited at the lower left: "Signorina Maria Ciaffi". Scifoni was a Roman artist who was very active as a portraitist between 1870 and 1914. The young woman portrayed is dressed in a dress and hairstyle reminiscent of the fashions of the Empire period. The painting is presented in a 19th-century gilded frame, which requires restoration.

River Landscape with Figures

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The subject is part of the painter's strongly naturalistic oeuvre. A native of Modena, he grew up artistically in and around Milan, places that were frequent subjects in his landscape work. This landscape also evokes the Lombardy plain. The work is presented in a period frame.