Eso Peluzzi (1894-1985) - Paesaggio delle Langhe

# Eso Peluzzi

## *Landscape of the Langhe*

**Oil on cardboard, 30 × 50 cm**
**Signed bottom right and dated 1958**
**With frame**
**Estimate: € 200 – 300**

### The artist

**Eso Peluzzi (Cairo Montenotte, 1894 – Monchiero, 1985)** is one of the most significant figures in Piedmontese and Ligurian painting of the twentieth century. Trained at the **Albertina Academy of Turin**, where he studied under Paolo Gaidano, Cesare Ferro and Giacomo Grosso, Peluzzi developed, over his long career, a painting deeply tied to the reality of the territory, rural life, and the depiction of the landscape.

From the 1920s the artist frequented assiduously **Montechiaro d'Acqui** and, from 1948, settled in **Monchiero**, in the heart of the Langhe. This territory became one of the main references of his painterly research, so much so that it transformed into a true place of his poetics.

His exhibition activity was particularly intense: Peluzzi participated in numerous editions of the **Venice Biennale** and the **Rome Quadriennale**, in addition to important national and international exhibitions. His works are today conserved in public collections and institutions, including the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Modern Art Gallery of Turin, and the Museum of the Sanctuary of Savona.

### *Landscape of the Langhe*: the territory as protagonist

Created in **1958**, *Landscape of the Langhe* belongs to a mature phase of Peluzzi’s production, when the artist’s relationship with Piedmontese landscape had solidified through decades of observation and direct experience.

The Langhe constitute, in fact, one of the most characteristic themes of his production. Already in 1926 Peluzzi was invited to the Venice Biennale with a work entitled *Landscape of the Langhe*; in 1938 he also made another *Landscape of the Langhe*, now kept at the Museum of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy in Savona.

The subject should not be regarded as a simple landscape view, but as one of the **privileged territories of Peluzzi’s research**, in which the rural Piedmontese landscape found a constant source of inspiration.

### Technique and style

The work is executed in **oil on cardboard**, a support particularly suited to landscape painting and widely documented in the artist’s production. The market records several Peluzzi paintings done with this technique: among them a *Landscape* measuring cm 36.5 × 30, signed bottom right, and *Snowing at Bardonecchia*, from **1958**, also oil on cardboard and signed bottom right.

The **signature bottom right** and the **date 1958** are important documentary elements, allowing precise placement of the painting in the mature phase of the artist.

Peluzzi’s painting is characterized by a particular attention to light, tonal relationships, and the synthetic construction of space. His search, as emphasized by critics, moves between **observation of reality and personal interpretation**, through formal simplifications that allow the landscape to take on a nearly lyrical dimension.

The **30 × 50 cm** format, more extended horizontally, is also particularly appropriate for a landscape view, enabling the breadth of the Langhe territory to be emphasized.

### A central subject in Peluzzi’s production

The relationship between Peluzzi and the Langhe represents one of the most recognizable aspects of his activity. After moving to Monchiero in 1948, the Cuneo area became an even more constant presence in his production. In the following years several municipalities of the area celebrated his work through exhibitions and recognitions: in 1963 Peluzzi purchased and restored the Oratory of the Disciplinati in Monchiero, turning it into his studio, while in 1966 Montechiaro d'Acqui awarded him honorary citizenship by organizing an exhibition of paintings inspired by the local landscape.

It is therefore particularly meaningful to encounter a work from **1958**, produced precisely in the period when the artist had already established his definitive relationship with the Langhe landscape.

Market interest also confirms the appeal of this subject matter. A prior Cambi auction offered a *Landscape of the Langhe* by Peluzzi, oil on canvas measuring 40 × 30 cm, signed bottom right, with an estimate of **€1,500–1,800**; it is a different work in support and dating, but provides a useful reference to document the importance of the theme in the artist’s production.

### Collecting value and conclusions

*Landscape of the Langhe* constitutes a testimony particularly coherent with the poetics of **Eso Peluzzi**, an artist deeply tied to the Piedmontese landscape and especially to the Langhe territory.

The presence of the **signature**, the **date 1958**, the original support in **cardboard**, the **30 × 50 cm** format, and the **frame** contribute to making the lot immediately usable and suitable both for a collection dedicated to Piedmontese painting and for a general interior decor context.

Of particular interest is also the direct relationship between the subject of the work and the artist’s biography: the Langhe do not represent a casual topic for Peluzzi, but one of the **fundamental places of his artistic experience**, frequented since the twenties and becoming even more central after his move to Monchiero.

The estimate of **€200–300** places the painting in an accessible range for a historically documented author in major Italian exhibitions and present in important public collections. The reference to numerous works dedicated to the Langhe and the presence of auction precedents for similar subjects also add concrete documentary and collecting interest to the lot.