Italian school (XIX) - Scena di genere

Description

"Genre Scene, The Fisherman", oil on panel, 64*54cm with frame, 42*32cm the panel alone, Italian school, datable to the last quarter of the 19th century.

The anonymous author depicts a moment of humble, concrete daily life, captured at the end of a day’s work. At the center, a fisherman, with his back to us, is tidying and covering the boat, bending over the planks with a practical, habitual gesture. To the right lie the tools of the trade—nets, baskets, and containers—ready to be put away or used again, while to the left a workhorse with a load saddle appears, a quiet presence suggesting transport and shared toil. The setting is pared down to essentials; a dark, neutral backdrop brings the figures and objects to the fore, like a small theatrical scene devoted to the dignity of doing."

The composition is built for compact masses and for an asymmetrical balance, the diagonal of the boat guides the eye toward the focal point of the action, while the horse on the left counterbalances the group of baskets and lobster pots on the right, creating a kind of visual balance between animal presence and still life of tools. The brushwork is loose but controlled, finer in the functional details — the ropes, the slats, the interwoven textures — and softer in the backgrounds and in the shadow areas, where the painterly material becomes veiled and atmospheric. The chromatic play favors an earthy and brown palette, with ochers, rusts and warm grays that evoke wood, leather and dust; on this base brighter accents are layered, such as the muted red of the cloth and some lighter reflections on the horse’s body and on the smooth surfaces, useful for shaping volumes and giving tactile substance to the objects.

In the climate of the late nineteenth century, a subject of this kind enters with natural ease into the veristic sensibility, which in Italy privileged the representation of contemporary reality and, above all, the life of the working classes, observed without idealizations and without rhetoric, with attention to the gestures of work and to its tools. Verism, born in parallel with the aims of European Naturalism, indeed sought a daily 'truth' made of concrete environments, toil and customs, aiming at a sober and participatory narration rather than sentimental or celebratory effects.

Condition Report

Overall in good condition. Brushwork and color are vivid and clearly legible. The frame should be considered a complimentary item.

Tracked and insured shipment with adequate packaging.