19th CENTURY PAINTINGS

Oil on canvas. English School, 19th century. Half-length portrait of a lady seated at a window overlooking a landscape of English countryside. The lady wears a sober, almost severe, black dress, yet lightened and embellished with refined lace and frills. A few, yet significant, jewels can be glimpsed among the lace, worn without ostentation. The lace veil on her head is adorned with small white flowers. Resting on her lap, held in her hands, the lady's spectacles and a lace-edged handkerchief rest. The painting is still on its original canvas. It is presented in an early 20th-century frame. A few, yet significant, jewels can be glimpsed.

Oil on cardboard. Fine workmanship, unsigned. Study of the face of a man with a thick white beard, his gaze turned upward in contemplation, suggesting a hermit saint or an apostle, such as Saint Peter. There is a small loss of paint on the right. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Snowy Alpine Landscape

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. Leonardo Roda, a landscape painter from Turin, was known as "the painter of the Matterhorn" for his numerous views of the Alpine peak, painted in all seasons and at all hours of the day. Presented here is a view of the Conca del Breuil, a large Alpine basin at the foot of the Matterhorn, completely covered in snow: the roofs of several houses with a bell tower emerge from the snow, while in the foreground a farmer passes by with a sleigh pulled by two horses. Early 20th-century guilloche frame.

Lecco Imbarcadero 1837

Oil on canvas. Signature, date, and title at the bottom left. Giuseppe Canella was one of the most important Veronese landscape and view painters of the 19th century. He made numerous trips throughout Europe, bringing back glimpses and views of European cities, which allowed him to study Flemish painting in particular. In 1835, he returned to Italy, dedicating himself to Italian landscape painting, especially of Lombard cities, which, under Flemish influence, were characterized by a clear departure from rigid classical vedutism and by the choice of particular lighting and color effects. The painting presented here, although signed and consistent with Canella's work in subject matter and pictorial style, is stylistically less effective in execution, thus casting doubt on its definitive attribution to the artist; nevertheless, it remains a work of considerable quality. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. Signed G. Esposito lower left. A classic Neapolitan school subject, depicting the corner of a flower-filled veranda of a tenement on the slopes overlooking the coast; a woman tends the rooster, while hens and chicks scratch around. Colorful, serene, lively. Presented in a period frame.

Crayons on paper laid down on canvas. English School, 19th century. Signed lower left DP Anker. In a dark inn, with the female figure of the innkeeper on the left, intent on filling a glass, two patrons are engaged in a game of chess, while a third observes them attentively. The light is focused on the players' table, the fulcrum of the scene. The painting is presented in a late 19th-century gilded frame.

Oil on canvas. Central European School, 19th century. The scene centers on a small herd of cows and sheep grazing outside the farmers'; house; a couple sits watching over the animals outside the farmhouse, the woman spinning, the man weaving a wicker basket. Behind them are the other dwellings of the humble village, made of stone and straw. The work draws on older examples of idealized pastoral landscapes, but with a very working-class and poor setting. The canvas has a slight tear in the center. It is presented in a late 19th-early 20th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left "Baldasar". The view depicts a landscape reminiscent of Egypt: in the foreground is a stream, a wide river with small boats moored, and along the bank, veiled women with waterskins on their heads walk; palm trees shade the houses on the banks, and in the background, beyond the cultivated fields, stand several pyramids. The sunset, with its rosy hues in the sky, creates a suggestive effect, reflecting on the water. The painting is presented in guilloché frames.

Oil on canvas. Unidentified signature and date 1892 at the lower right. Portrait of a stern, middle-aged lady, composed in her street dress, which is rather charming with its pink bow and trimmings. Presented in an early 20th-century frame. From the Campari company collection.

Girl with Flower

Oil on canvas. Signed in the center (along the neckline of the girl's dress). From the Campari company collection. A central figure of the Lombard Scapigliatura movement, Conconi developed a refined and experimental language, taking the research of Cremona and Ranzoni to its extreme, later reinterpreting it in a Symbolist-Divisionist vein. He created several portraits, in which the influence of Tranquillo Cremona is evident, while revealing his originality in genre paintings, landscapes, and fantastical, imaginative constructions. The painting is presented in a frame from the first half of the 20th century.

Mountain Landscape

Oil on canvas. Signature and date (poorly legible, 18...) lower right. Ernst Gustav Doerell devoted himself to landscape painting, particularly favoring glimpses of the Bohemian mountains where he lived. His work features detailed and precise views, realistically capturing the play of light that softens the colors of nature. The work is presented in a period frame.

Female Face

Mixed media on cardboard. Signed lower left. Antonio Mancini was a painter of realist inspiration, trained in the Neapolitan school of Morelli and Palizzi and later in Paris. He devoted himself primarily to portraiture and genre scenes of a popular or anecdotal nature, but while initially he was close to 19th-century naturalism, which led him to portray popular figures imbued with sadness (his street urchins), he later began to experiment with different techniques, using vivid flashes of light, applied to the canvas in clumps of violent color and vibrant drips, even employing non-pictorial materials, such as stained glass, and depicting agitated figures, sometimes in imaginative disguises, an expression of his profound psychological distress. In this drawing, likely a preparatory sketch, the female face is not emphasized in its physiognomic features, but rather in the explosive personality of the woman's body, whose half-bust seems to soar upward in a lateral twist, making it emerge from the blurred and undefined features surrounding it. This work is presented in a frame.

Siege Scene

Oil on canvas. Outside the fortifications of a city, a commander, surrounded by his soldiers, is about to light the fuse of the cannon. The army defends the citadel outside the walls and the soldiers scan the horizon looking downwards: this leads us to place the scene on the fortifications of a city, in particular those of Genoa, that rise on the mountains behind it and from which the Genoese defended the city from attacks from the sea; the Genoa setting is also supported by the banner that flies over the walls, the Saint George Cross (red cross on a white background), flag of the Republic of Genoa. The shape of the armor, weapons and clothing would refer to the siege of Genoa in 1522. It is therefore the nineteenth-century representation of a historical episode, which is then part of that pictorial production widespread in Italy in the nineteenth century, inspired by the new historical novel popular in literature. On the back of the frame there is the name G. Boni, together with a number that refers to participation in an official exhibition. Giovanni Boni was a pupil of the Brera Academy, in particular a follower of Giuseppe Sogni, an artist who was among the first to favour historical painting in its innovative romantic declinations. Not much is known about Boni, neither from a biographical point of view nor from his production. Of his certain attribution we know only the Nude of Man (painted Academy) with which he won the first prize for the Scuola del Nudo in Brera in 1852. The piece expresses the figures and the pathos of the scene with expressive efficiency; the characters in the foreground are very well characterized in their poses, expressions, in the details of the clothes and weapons, while the other figures fade into the background, suggesting the presence of a large army. The painting, still on the first canvas, shows small widespread losses of colour. It is presented in a frame in style.

Oil on panel portrait of a young 16th-century woman, executed using a painting technique inspired by 16th-century Venetian portraiture. The female figure, wearing a dress with a deep neckline that reveals one shoulder, is portrayed from behind, her face turned toward the viewer in a studied pose. Her headdress is adorned with pearls and feathers, typical decorative elements of the period. The composition balances the typical characteristics of portraiture and the ideal image, in keeping with the artistic tradition of the time. The work is framed in a contemporary frame.

Oil on canvas. Mid 19th century. The large scene tells an unidentified historical episode, set in the Renaissance period, in which an archbishop listens to the plea of a young man in arms, accompanied by his mother, who supports his plea. The setting is inside the reception hall of the high prelate, presumably in the bishop's palace, which from the loggia in the background overlooks the Cathedral, whose dome can be glimpsed; the bishop is surrounded by his subordinates and guards, while different people of the people attend. Particular is the presence of the man sitting in the foreground on the left, who looks towards the viewer and points to the scene, as if he were telling it. The atmosphere is played on the contrasts between lights and shadows, between the bright colors of the dominant characters compared to the dull and suffused tones of the surrounding figures, who literally tend to disappear into the shadows at the limits of the scene. The work is part of that large nineteenth-century production that drew on the historical or literary subject, re-proposing it in a romantic key. The painting, restored and relined, is presented in an important frame from the second half of the 19th century, with some shortcomings.

Tempera on wood. This icon, typical of Ethiopian and Coptic Orthodox worship, features Mary with the Baby Jesus in her arms at the center, flanked by two angels with swords. Surrounding it, in nine separate panels, are figures of saints (Saint George at the bottom center) and other angels; at the top center is God the Father in three identical figures, the traditional depiction of the Holy Trinity, and at the corners of the panel are the four symbolic figures of the evangelists. The panel features small losses of paint.

Female Portrait

Oil on canvas, signed lower right by Milanese artist Roberto Fontana, known for having begun his career in historical Romanticism and later established himself in genre painting. The portrait of a young woman features an elegant figure emerging from a dark background, highlighting an expressive and luminous face. The light diffuses around her, accentuated by the rosy complexion that shines through the elegant lace of her black dress, lending further luminosity to the portrait. Fontana, influenced by the Scapigliatura movement and the nuanced luminism of Tranquillo Cremona, manages to capture the delicacy of detail in a work that combines technique and sensitivity. The work is framed in period style.

Drunk Baccus

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. The god is depicted standing on the scene, clad only in a cloth around his loins and by ivy leaves placed on his hips and head, while holding a chalice in one hand; his gaze is vacant and dazed. Behind him, a semi-reclining putto plays with ivy. All around are white clouds, just as the ground is white, with flashes of blue sky and a green bush creating the only contrasts. On the back of the work is the label 'Mario Galli Collezione d'Arte', with cataloguing number 64 and the artist's autograph inscription. The work well represents the painting of this artist, who was born in Modena but trained artistically first in Rome and then in Florence, where he spent most of his life. His rich production initially proposed mainly historical subjects, but then turned to portraits and finally to landscapes. His uniqueness can be recognised in his ability to range from historical subjects, often placed in settings taken from ancient Pompeii, to the Macchiaioli-style naturalism of his second period, in which Muzzioli sought a significant perception of atmosphere and light in subjects inspired by the rural Tuscan environment, often set in antiquity. In this work, a portrait of a mythological character, the artist's luministic intent strongly transpires, the search for the effect of light playing on the naked bodies of the god and the putto, then fading into the background. The Art Gallery label leads back to the Florentine Mario Galli (1877 -1946), a sculptor who was also an important collector of works especially by Macchiaioli. The work shows an important crack and has been retouched. It is presented in a stylish frame.

Ezekiel's Vision, 1825

Etching by Paolo Caronni depicting the "Vision of Ezekiel" based on the painting of the same name by Raphael, executed between 1516 and 1518. The work depicts the appearance of God in the sky as narrated in the biblical Book of Ezekiel, surrounded by two cherubs and supported by the four figures of the tetramorph, representing the symbols of the four evangelists: the angel of St. Matthew, the lion of St. Mark, the winged ox of St. Luke, and the eagle of St. John. At the bottom, a figure bathed in a ray of light symbolizes Ezekiel. The engraving bears the signature of the engraver Paolo Caronni at the bottom right. At the center is the name of Vincenzo Raggio, a draughtsman known for his skill in chiaroscuro and the detailed reproduction of Renaissance iconography. The etching is presented in a contemporary 19th-century wooden frame, which shows slight loss of gilding.

Female Portrait

Oil on canvas. Signed on the right, halfway up the canvas. It is the portrait of a woman in mourning, a young widow, as can be deduced not only from her black dress, but rather from her headdress and especially from the cameo with a male portrait, which she wears hanging from her neck. Achille Zo was a French artist (from Bayonne, a town in the Pyrenees that was culturally influenced by the Basque Country), who despite having repeatedly stayed in Paris and Bordeaux, where he trained artistically, then made several trips to Spain, both to Madrid (in 1856) and to Andalusia (1860), producing for several years works with historical subjects or Spanish genre scenes. At the end of the 1860s, he turned instead to Orientalism. There are also several portraits in his production. The painting proposed here, on the first canvas, is presented in a beautiful contemporary frame from the second half of the 19th century.

View of Corfu with a Small Church and a Monk

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Angelos Giallinas, born in Corfu, was known for his numerous views of his native island, although his landscape production includes glimpses of Greece, other Greek islands, Italian and oriental cities. His watercolor glimpses are pervaded by a suspended, veiled atmosphere. The painting has slight scratches. Framed.

Glimpse of Corfu with Monk

Watercolor on paper. Signed lower left. Angelos Giallinas, born in Corfu, was known for his numerous views of his native island, although his landscape production includes glimpses of Greece, other Greek islands, Italian and oriental cities. His watercolor glimpses are pervaded by a suspended, veiled atmosphere. The painting has slight scratches. Framed.

Oil on canvas. Unidentified signature lower right. This is a copy of the self-portrait painted by the famous Dutch painter around 1639, now held at the Louvre in Paris. It has patches on the back. It is presented in a contemporary gilded frame.

Family Lunch 1802

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. Genre scene of popular taste, it portrays a bourgeois family preparing to have lunch: the father, already seated at the table, is about to bless the meal, while his wife and son, standing, follow the prayer. Little is known about Charles Christophe Coventry, an English painter of whom we know mainly genre scenes of popular settings, such as this one. Restored and relined, the painting is presented in a period frame.