Advert Description
Are you interested in this item? This item is up for auction at Catawiki. Please click on "respond to advert" (orange button) to get redirected to the Catawiki website. Catawiki’s goal is to make special objects universally available. Our weekly auctions feature thousands of unusual, rare, and exceptional objects you won’t find in just any store. ALFONSO FATS
(Solofra, 1918 - Salerno, 2002)
Goats in the stable
Oil on wood, cm. 30 x 30 - Signed 'ALFONSO GRASSI' at the bottom right
Frame size, cm. 44 x 44 x 5 c.a.
NOTES: Published. Certificate of Guarantee and Lawful Origin. Signed lower right. On the back: authentication with artist's signature and Certificate of Authenticity from the Alfonso Grassi Art Gallery. Work with gilded frame (defects):
Valuable work for artistic value, oil on panel by the well-known artist among the major Neapolitan masters of the Italian 900 cm. 30 x 30, in excellent condition, free from defects or damages of any kind. The painting, authentic by the painter Alfonso Grassi (Solofra, 1918 - Salerno, 2002), was exhibited in the exhibition "Myths and the territory in Sicily of a thousand cultures. Art and its Contemporaneity: from the Caravaggisti to Today”, Mazara del Vallo, 2017 (F. Paliaga & A. Maggio, exhibition catalogue, Ed. Lab_04, Marsala, 2018, p. 29, fig. 24.1), depicts a classic of the master's painting, in particular a country scene with three goats and a shepherdess, set inside a stable.
Alfonso Grassi, born in the province of Avellino, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples where he was a pupil of Carlo Silvieri, Emilio Notte and Vincenzo Caprile. At the age of nine he painted his first picture with cooking oil. Called to arms, he left for the French front and later for Albania and Greece, where he was wounded in the arm. Few other painters can boast, like him, so many awards won and so many collective and personal exhibitions. In 1982 he won the “Lorenzo il Magnifico” European prize for painting. Favorite pupil of Giorgio de Chirico and friend of Pietro Annigoni and Gregorio Sciltian. Official portraitist of Pope Paul John II, of Giorgio de Chirico, of Sandro Pertini, of Giulio Andreotti, of the Prince of Torlonia, of the Cardinal of Naples H.E. Michele Giordano and the Archbishop of Salerno Guerino Grimaldi. Nicknamed “the painter of the elderly”, he also portrayed landscapes, still lifes and animals. He was one of the last painters to still paint in "candlelight". He worked at all hours of the day. He attended museums and carefully studied the painting of the past such as Caravaggio and Guarini, Van Gogh and de Chirico. Passionate researcher of good pictorial material, over the years he has become an authentic alchemist of color, a scrupulous and demanding preparer of canvases to the point of paranoia. Witty, with a typically southern humor, he contained in his character the Neapolitan spontaneity and the typical decision of the people of Irpinia.
This is how Giorgio De Chirico wrote: "In an era like ours in which most painters neglect or rather have forgotten what form, what is volume, what are all those qualities that give life to a painting, what are all those values that create the show on the canvas and ensure that the human figure, an object, an animal, a tree or a plant are not vague and indefinite ghosts, often unpleasantly deformed, flat and stuck to each other like sardines in the can, in an era like ours, I say, is a real satisfaction and a rest for those who really understand painting and do not let themselves be influenced by the so-called trends and the various isms created and disseminated to confuse people's ideas and selling smoke to the naive is real rest and real satisfaction, I repeat looking at the paintings by Alfonso Grassi ”(cit .: Giorgio De Chirico).
The work of excellent artistic and chromatic yield is in good condition with the signs of aging visible in the photos. Also present are his full-bodied and material brushstrokes, with beautiful dense and lively colors of beautiful quality, corresponding to his whimsical style. Bottom right bears a red signature.
The picture, of good pictorial quality, is in a gilded wooden frame. The painting shows traces of dirt caused by time, signs that testify to the years of the work. "The frame shown in the photos above has been added to the artwork by the seller or a third party. The frame is provided to you at no additional cost so that it is ready to display as soon as it arrives. The frame is included by way of title. courtesy and is not considered an integral part of the artwork. Therefore, any potential damage to the frame that does not affect the artwork itself will not be accepted as a valid reason to open a claim or request cancellation of the order . "
Provenance: Coll. Sicilian private
Publication:
? The Myths and the Territory in Sicily with a thousand cultures. Art and its Contemporaneity: from the Caravaggisti to Today”, exhibition catalog edited by F. Paliaga & A. Maggio, Ed. Lab_04, Marsala, 2018, p. 29, fig. 24.1),
? LNEDITA QUADRERIA general catalog of the paintings of the collection of the cycle “Myths and the territory”, Publisher Lab_04, Marsala, 2022.
? The Myths and the Territory in Sicily with a thousand cultures. UNEDITED QUADRERIA general catalog of paintings from the collection of the cycle "Myths and the territory", Editore Lab_04, Marsala, 2022.
We also guarantee accurate packaging with bubble wrap / cardboard / polystyrene (packaging cost approximately € 50.00) and tracked shipping (€ 50.00 Italy). For export, the work is subject to a request for a Certificate of Free Movement (European Community) or Export Certificate (Extra-Community Transport), at the export office (Superintendence of the territory) with the times and costs incurred ( € 300 / € 600, all included: shipping, packing in wooden crate and particular exports).
The shipment could be delayed by a few days/weeks for logistical and administrative reasons. 67551751
