Edgardo Rossaro (1882-1972) - Autoritratto

ARTIST

Edgardo Rossaro (1882-1972) Italian painter. Born in Vercelli in 1882 into a family of artists and patriots, he shaped his creative identity between the rigor of academic training and a deep civil participation. I learned the first rudiments from his father Ferdinando, he perfected his studies between Venice, under the guidance of Luigi Nono, and the Albertina Academy in Turin, to then settle in Florence where he approached avant-garde circles and the Macchiaioli painters. A fundamental chapter of his life was the experience as an alpine volunteer during the Great War: in the Dolomites, Rossaro never stopped painting and drawing, capturing moments of life in the trenches and mountain landscapes that later converged in his famous memoir La mia guerra gioconda.

In the postwar period the artist chose Rapallo as his permanent home, transforming the Ligurian coast into one of the favored subjects of his mature painting, characterized by an unceasing search for the value of color-light. His style, evolved from a refined verismo to almost Post-Impressionist synthesis and Turner-like romantic suggestions, made him a valued portraitist and landscape painter capable of imparting a sense of contemplative calm to his views. Among his most significant works are remembered the portraits of the bourgeoisie of the era and the vibrant views of Cadore and the Gulf of Tigullio, testimonies of an art trying to arrest visual emotion through bold brushstrokes and skillful tonal contrasts.

DESCRIPTION

"Self-portrait", pastel on panel, 37×32 cm with frame, 23×18 cm the panel alone, 1963, signed, dated and titled at bottom left.

The work offers the observer an intense, almost photographic close-up, capturing the artist’s physiognomy in his full maturity. The face, characterized by the typical round glasses and a white beard that fades softly toward the base, emerges with plastic force thanks to a composition that eliminates any environmental distractions. The stroke is meticulous and vibrant, resolved with a dense lattice of marks that reveal the sapient use of pastel: light hits the skin creating warm and natural tonal transitions, while the dark background, rendered in deep reddish tones, enhances the relief of features and the clarity of the gaze, still lively and probing.

The work belongs to the late phase of Rossaro’s production, representing a significant testimony of his constant search for the value of color-light. The self-portrait became for the author a recurring and almost obsessive theme in old age, an exercise in introspection where the lesson of Luigi Nono’s verismo and the synthesis of the Macchiaioli merged into a more intimate vision. To pursue these physiognomic studies, Rossaro often favored pastel or, more rarely, the encaustic technique, instruments that allowed him to achieve that particular airiness and color transparency capable of ennobling the graphic sign and restoring the subject’s psychological depth. A work of fine execution and notable collecting interest.

CONDITION REPORT

Excellent overall condition. The object is intact in every part with vivid and legible chroma and stroke. The frame is offered as a courtesy.

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