Giovanni Fattori

(Italian, 1825-1908)

Bosco alle Cascine, c. 1880s

watercolor and graphite on paper

signed Giovanni Fattori, titled, and inscribed (verso)

7 1/2 x 13 inches.

Property from a Private Collection, Taos, New Mexico

We would like to thank Marco Bertoli for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Provenance:

Mario Galli, Florence, Italy

Exhibited:

Milan, Galleria Carini, Mostra vendita di dipinit dell'800, January 28 - February 14, 1954, no. 24, pl. 5

New York, Stair Sainty Matthiesen, The Macchiaioli, Tuscan Painters of Sunlight, March 14 - April 20, 1984, no. 36, pp. 98-99, illus.

Lot essay:

The Cascine is one the largest Florentine parks and was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the artist. Fattori painted en plein air several different views of the shaded avenues of leafy trees, capturing the atmosphere as the light and the seasons change. An extraordinary production made over several years includes the artworks Bosco alle Cascine, 1870-1880, (Alessandro Magnelli Collection); Le Cascine, 1865-1875 (Mario Galli Collection); and Le vecchia Cascine, 1865-1875 (Luigi Spinelli Collection). Similar compositions to the present watercolor include Alberi alle Cascine, 1860-1870 (Adolfo Santarini Collection) and the Viale alle Cascine, 1870-1875. In these latter works, the painter focuses on the study of trees made through "spots" of different shades of green. Above all he focuses on the chiaroscuro of the light that filters through the branches of the trees, recreating their rustling and airy sensation.

An inscription on the verso of the present watercolor bears witness to its undoubted pedigree, translating as: “In the Collection Mario Galli approves Giovanni Malesci.” A Florentine sculptor, Mario Galli (1877-1946) collected paintings by the greatest Macchiaioli painters, from Signorini to Borrani, from Abbati to D'Ancona, and he became one of the most important collectors of Giovanni Fattori. Giovanni Malesci was a pupil of Giovanni Fattori from 1903 to 1908. As one of the artist’s greatest supporters and connoisseurs, Malesci’s 1961 catalogue raisonné on the Livorno painter remains to this day the fundamental reference text for Fattori's work.

Bosco alle Cascine, c. 1880s