Cosimo Privato (1899 – 1971) - Scena campestre (1948)

Cosimo Privato
(Venice, 1899 – Venice, 1971)

Title: Rural Scene
Technique: Oil on cardboard
Framed dimensions: 45.5 x 55.5 cm
Painting dimensions: 26.5 × 36.5 cm
Dating: 1948
Signature: lower right
Inscriptions: on the back dedicates it to Mr. Ollic and dated 1948

Description of the work
Dated 1948, Rural Scene belongs to Cosimo Privato’s early mature phase and testifies to a particularly happy side of his painting, here directed not toward Venetian glimpses but toward life in the Venetian hinterland. At the center of the composition two women advance through the fields, accompanied by a child busy tending a chicken in the foreground; behind them, the large haystack, a farm house, and the low profile of the hills define with few elements the rural horizon.
Privato approaches the subject with swift, loose painting, of post-impressionist sensibility, entrusting the construction of the image to brushwork and color. The figures are defined by synthetic strokes, without lingering on details, while the meadow, the vegetation and especially the large mass of the haystack are resolved through lively and immediate applications of paint. The result is a scene of notable freshness, in which the everyday episode almost takes on the character of an impression captured from life. Particularly successful is the relationship between figures and landscape: the expansive green of the countryside, the yellows and oranges of the haystack and the architecture, and the lighter tones of the clothing mark the composition with a luminous chromatic rhythm. The rural subject, less common than the artist’s Venetian views but present in his repertoire, also reveals that interest in figures, popular scenes, and episodes of daily life that constitutes one of the most recognizable aspects of Privato’s production.

Biographical notes
Cosimo Privato was born in Venice in 1899 and trained in the city’s artistic milieu, beginning as early as 1920 a long participation in the exhibitions of the Bevilacqua La Masa Organization. His emergence occurred in the 1920s: he was admitted to the Venice Biennale in 1926 and participated in subsequent editions until 1938. His activity as an exhibitor also took him to the Quadriennale di Roma in 1935, to the exhibitions in Fiume and Milan, and to several international shows. During the 1930s his works were purchased by important public institutions. In the postwar period, while gradually reducing his presence in the major exhibitions, Privato continued to paint and exhibit in various galleries. He died in Venice in 1971.

CONDITION REPORT
Good overall condition, consistent with the age of the work. The pictorial surface is legible, with the color well preserved overall and the signature visible in the lower left.

Frame present.
The frame is to be understood as a courtesy

Tracked and insured shipping with proper packing.