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SILVER Seller in Milano, Italy
Luigi Bartolini (Cupramontana 1892 - Rome 1963), The Beach, 1936. Etching on applied Chinese paper, dimensions 185 x 203 mm. Italian painter, writer, scriptwriter and engraver. After his technical studies in Jesi, he moved to Siena in 1907, where he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts. In 1909 we find him in Rome, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts and classes in anatomy, art history and literature at the University; at the Academy of Spain, in San Pietro in Montorio, he attended drawing courses and studied Goya's engravings. Between 1913 and 1914 he was in Florence, where he attended classes in architecture and anatomy and the nude school attached to the Academy; he was impressed by Giovanni Fattori's engravings and, at the Uffizi, he studied the collections of antique drawings and etchings by Rembrandt and Callot. With Bartolini, engraving once again became a means of poetic expression free from the symbolism and Vedutism then in vogue at the academies. The artist, strong in his indomitable freedom of expression and despite his unconventionality, is today considered one of the most important contemporary engravers of the 20th century. In his etchings, sometimes a light hatching prevails (blond genre), sometimes a Rembrandt-like search for chiaroscuro (black genre). The sheet contains different moments and situations, almost notes, in the most typical style of the author. In the upper part we see a middle-aged woman seated frontally, at her feet an umbrella and a basket. Behind her a young woman in costume is lying down, possibly her daughter. In the background are two other figures and a third standing appears to be diving. In the lower part of the sheet, upside down, a similar but less detailed scene. Title in pencil lower left: The Beach. In the centre right: Luigi Bartolini. This would therefore be a proof, the specimen published on Luigi Bartolini's website is numbered 50, the one on Esemplari unici e rari 4 esemplari. The subject is known under other titles: Mother and Daughter by the River; Mother and Daughter by the River. Excellent impression with pleasant silvery grey ground glaze. Particular attention has been given to cleaning the central area of the plate, which is free of horizontal marks visible on other specimens. On applied Chinese paper. Very good state of preservation. On the verso there is a penciled dedication by the artist the text is not clear but Bartolini donates this copy considering it better than the one given to the writer Volponi. The sheet comes from an Olivetti executive.
ID: 11318-1700150280-76653
