Painting by Francisque Desportes - Dancing Maenad

Gouache on paper. A typical landscape painting of the Grand Tour, intended to commemorate the formative journeys to Italy and Europe that were popular among young European aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries. Paper is often used as a base for these travel "postcards," as it is lighter and easier to carry. This painting depicts a glimpse of the Mediterranean countryside, with remains of classical antiquities. The work is presented in a contemporary gilded frame (restoration required due to damage and missing parts).

Oil on canvas. Portrait of a young woman with her dog, outdoors, against a vast river landscape. The painting, on the first canvas, shows traces of previous restorations. It is presented in a period 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.

Gathering

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. De Albertis devoted himself to the military-patriotic genre, producing a rich repertoire of battles, replicated in various variations, which gradually became his specialty. Later, he turned to watercolor, but military subjects, often featuring horses, continued to dominate his work. This watercolor, in fact, features two saddled but unridered horses, responding to the trumpet call—the rallying call—sounded by the rider at the head of the squadron, visible on the right. The work is presented in a frame.

Oil on canvas. Trace of signature at the bottom. In a romantic vein, the painting depicts a small girl tenderly leaning on her large dog, with whom she exchanges a tender glance. The background is a garden, with a sky fading into the light of the distant sunset. The painting shows signs of previous restoration and relining. It is presented in an early 20th-century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Lacroix's signature is at the bottom left. On the beach, the fisherman, having pulled his boat ashore and rolled up the sails, which his companion carries on her shoulders, is offering his fresh catch to a woman equipped with a unique water transport and accompanied by a child. The work is naturalistic and realistic, offering a glimpse of rural life rich in detail and particulars, both in the figures and in the landscape and surrounding elements on the beach. It is presented in a period 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.

Reading the Letter

Antique tapestry on canvas made. The scene, set in the 18th century, depicts a wealthy lady seated at her dressing table, reading a letter, while her maid offers her jewelry. A few cherubs hover above, lending an allegorical meaning to the scene. The canvas requires cleaning. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Copy from David Teniers II

Oil on panel. The painting is a revised copy of the famous work by David Teniers the Younger (1610 -1690), executed between 1634 and 1640 and currently preserved at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The title of the lively scene refers to the so-called Twelfth Night, a celebration corresponding to the Epiphany, precisely twelve days after Christmas, which was the last night of celebrations, in which one could drink beyond one's limits, dedicate oneself to love, to partner and gender swapping, a sort of carnival, during which the King of Misrule (literally the king of Misrule) was elected, a ruler in reverse who imposed his laws, subverting rules and behaviors. This work, like many others by Teniers, had such success linked to the numerous commissions from royals and aristocrats during the 18th century, as to induce a large posthumous production of copyists, many of whom even signed with the artist's name. The painting presented here has several paint losses, to be remedied. It is in a late 19th century frame, adapted for size.

Composed of woodblocked sheets, sewn together and partly colored, with matching figures and texts. The group consists of 23 booklets, of which two in three copies and one in four copies; another couple has the same cover but different contents. The booklets can be considered as "manga" of the nineteenth century: the word "manga" still today can designate many different productions, such as single cartoons, scattered drawings, more elaborate illustrations, comic strips, comic books, as well as animated drawings. Therefore, starting from the assumption that there is no "manga form" but different ways of conceiving objects and graphic forms all denominated with this word, the term manga can be attested in literary and essayistic use in Japan as early as the eighteenth century to indicate, as mentioned above, drawings and sketches. But it is from the first half of the nineteenth century that Katsushika Hokusai's 15 volumes of illustrations, studies, graphic entertainment and detailed bichromatic prints became established, thanks to the progressive publication, starting from 1814. If, on the other hand, we want to give the word the more specific meaning of “stories drawn in sequence”, then the debut must be placed in the second half of the nineteenth century, similarly to what happened in Europe and the United States for comics. The booklets are in good condition.

Courtship at the Well 1873

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Haier was a Viennese painter and photographer, but lived for a long time in the Czech Republic. His pictorial production includes portraits and many genre scenes, set like this one in the Czech rural environment. We have a seller of jars, transported on the back of his donkey, who entertains himself at a well in amorous conversation with a girl, who in the meantime offers a tuft of grass to the docile beast. 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.