19th CENTURY PAINTINGS

Portrait of a Lady, 1892

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. French artist André Chabellard made a name for himself as a portrait painter, both popular and noble. His figures are set in well-defined settings, as in this portrait of a lady seated in her beautifully furnished living room. The execution is remarkable, with chromatic effects and light and shadow that highlight the figure in the foreground and blend into the surrounding elements. The work is presented in a mid-20th-century gilded frame (slight losses on the left).

Tempera on pith paper. Chinese, Canton, Qing dynasty, ca. 1860. A collection of twenty-eight paintings depicting Chinese courtiers, scholars, and merchants. Originally kept in an album, they are presented here in a beautiful frame decorated with embroidered floral fabrics. Pith paper is a thin, translucent material derived from the pith of the Tetrapanax papyrifer tree, or "pith plant," native to China and Taiwan. Pith paper entered painting to meet the growing demand for small, inexpensive, and easily transportable souvenirs following the massive growth of trade with China in the first quarter of the 19th century. Because many were sold in albums and thus protected from light, they retain their vibrant colors even today.

Landscape with Flock and Shepherds

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. This is likely Achille Dovera's largest work, presumably intended for an important patron. A small preparatory sketch on wood depicting the same scene has been sold on the market. In the center of the foreground, the work features a large flock of sheep walking along a path, accompanied by several shepherds. The animals emerge, enveloped in a great cloud of dust, from a passage through lush vegetation, in a flat countryside against the backdrop of mountain peaks. The Milanese painter Achille Dovera is considered a leading exponent of 19th-century naturalist and genre painting. A landscape painter, Dovera formally maintains a connection with phenomenal reality, which he reproduces with precision, even though color and light play a fundamental role; his rapid, moving brushstrokes lend freshness and immediacy to the scene without disrupting the forms. This large painting is presented in a beautiful, contemporary gilded wooden frame.

Oil on canvas. Lacroix's signature is at the bottom left. On the beach, the fisherman, having pulled his boat ashore and rolled up the sails, which his companion carries on her shoulders, is offering his fresh catch to a woman equipped with a unique water transport and accompanied by a child. The work is naturalistic and realistic, offering a glimpse of rural life rich in detail and particulars, both in the figures and in the landscape and surrounding elements on the beach. It is presented in a period frame.

Oil on canvas. 19th-century Northern European school. In the scene, set on a barren, snow-covered plain with a frozen river flowing through it, a large horse-drawn sleigh is parked on the bank, carrying several people: a woman with a child in her arms is preparing to climb aboard, watched by the driver, while another female figure, holding her child by the hand, walks away across the ice. It looks like a Nordic public transport stop! The work is presented in a late-19th-century frame, which has several missing or damaged parts.

Oil on metal plaque. Delicate portrait of a child, presented in a contemporary embossed and gilded metal frame.

Porch with Figures

Oil on cardboard. Signed upper right. Gregorio Mariani is best known for his engravings of Roman antiquities, but he also established himself as a painter of genre scenes, often depicting period figures, and as a portraitist. In this work, which displays an impressionist influence in its nuanced color and interplay of light, he depicts a scene of 18th-century city life: numerous figures, whose flowing women's dresses are visible, wander beneath a high portico, between whose arches opens a glimpse of the sea, crisscrossed by ships. The work is presented in a contemporary wooden frame.

Country Scene with Figures

Oil on canvas. Signed lower left. The scene depicts a group of peasants, both men and women, gathering baskets of flowers, making music and dancing to the sound of bagpipes and tambourines, with some taking the opportunity to flirt. It is therefore a popular country festival, a favorite subject of Barucci, a Roman painter who primarily depicted daily life in the countryside. His almost all-encompassing love for nature—the most authentic, barren, and realistic aspects of the Roman countryside and suburbs—led him to become one of the leading exponents of the rustic style. The brightness and vividness of the colors enhance the festive feel of the scene, underscoring the carefree, serene atmosphere of this moment of folk life. The work is presented in a period frame.

The Hair Cut

Tapestry on canvas. The scene, set in the 18th century, features a wealthy, bejeweled lady drinking tea with a friend, while a valet stands behind her, preparing to cut her long ponytail. The scene, likely allegorical, also features a winged cherub grasping a lock of her cut hair, while another flutters upward. The canvas requires restoration due to obvious tears and loss of color. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Reading the Letter

Antique tapestry on canvas made. The scene, set in the 18th century, depicts a wealthy lady seated at her dressing table, reading a letter, while her maid offers her jewelry. A few cherubs hover above, lending an allegorical meaning to the scene. The canvas requires cleaning. It is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. This is a copy of the painting of the same name by Giulio Cesare Ferrari (1818-1899), created in 1863 and purchased a few years later by the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia in Bologna. The painting depicts a scene from Victor Hugo's novel "Notre-Dame de Paris": Esmeralda, a young gypsy who enchants with her beauty and dancing, is persecuted by the archdeacon Frollo because of his obsession and locked in the tower of the Parisian cathedral, where she is helped, however, by the hunchbacked bell-ringer Quasimodo. In the scene, the young woman is huddled in the narrow, dark cell accompanied by her inseparable goat. The work belongs to the historical-literary painting movement that developed in the 19th century alongside Romanticism and Realism, and is characterized by the depiction of scenes from history and literature, often with celebratory and commemorative intent. The copy proposed here, of good workmanship and datable shortly after the original, is presented in a mid-20th century style frame, contemporary with the restoration and relining of the work.

Oil on canvas. Central European school of the first half of the 19th century. The painting refers to a graphic by Johann Gottfried Haid (1704 -1767), a German engraver known for his mezzotint copies of works by great masters. The original work is probably attributable to Antonio Mercurio Amorosi (1660 -1738), known for his portraits of popular characters in the "childish" style. Our painting presents several small differences from the reference graphic. Still on the first canvas, it is presented in a mid-1900s frame.

Scene with Guards in the City, 1875

Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower left. The English painter George Goodwin Kilburne specialized in genre scenes set in the life of the Victorian upper middle class, with hunting scenes, living room scenes, all characterized by elegance, by the meticulousness of details especially of the female figures. In 1875 Kilburne stayed a few months in Rome, and then traveled to other Italian and European cities. The scene depicted here, actually from 1875, seems to be set in Rome: at a guard post in the city, as the urban glimpse that can be seen from the open door clearly explains, some soldiers wearing the uniform of the Vatican guards are resting. The work is presented in a late 19th-early 20th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Dutch school, late 19th century. Unidentified signature and date '80 on the lower left. Metal plate on the frame with "Ashelard Holland 1880" written on it. The landscape view, a vast cultivated countryside with gentle slopes, is crossed by a watercourse, navigated by some boats; on the left bank, a small group of houses, with a small church; some wayfarers cross paths on the path. Still on the first canvas, the painting is presented in a regilded frame from the early 1900s.

Oil on canvas. Second half of the 19th century. Intense close-up portrait of a man, probably North African, which belongs to the artistic period defined as orientalist, that is, in that artistic production that was fascinated by the oriental world, following the numerous trips in vogue in the 19th century to the warm and exotic lands of the countries of Western Asia. The painting is presented in a period frame.

Interior with Female Figure

Oil on canvas. Signed lower right. In a soberly furnished room, an elderly woman sits reading, or perhaps meditating, with her book resting on the table under the window, while her dog sleeps curled up on a bench to the right of the woman. The scene is rich in finely depicted details; from the window, with the curtains raised to let in the light that illuminates the scene, we can glimpse figures walking on a road that leads to a fortified palace. The German painter August Friedrich Siegert established himself mainly for his portraits and genre scenes that represent moments of daily life with great attention to detail and a touch of realism. The painting is presented in a contemporary gilded frame from the second half of the 19th century.

The Return from the Feast of the Madonna dell'Arco in Naples

Oil on canvas. This is a copy of a famous painting by the painter Louis Léopold Robert (1794 -1835), which was exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1827 and bought by King Louis Philippe; it is currently preserved in the Louvre Museum. The painting depicts a joyful festive scene, rich in folklore with costumed characters dancing the tarantella and in the background the fantastic panorama of the city of Naples. Robert, a Swiss artist, stayed several times in Italy, where he found inspiration for the creation of many works and established himself as a romantic genre painter and Grand Tour landscape painter, whose subjects were highly appreciated and replicated. The painting of the "Return from the feast of the Madonna dell'Arco in Naples", was part of a project by Robert, who intended to paint four large canvases on the seasons, set in four different parts of Italy: this one represented Spring. The canvas presented here, unsigned, is nevertheless of high pictorial quality. Restored and relined, it is presented in a late 19th - early 20th century frame.

Oil on canvas. Tasty depiction of popular life with caricature-like figures: three full-length commoners are depicted on the street while they converse intensely with each other, exchanging confidences or... gossip! Unsigned, the painting requires restoration due to a tear at the bottom.

Copy from David Teniers II

Oil on panel. The painting is a revised copy of the famous work by David Teniers the Younger (1610 -1690), executed between 1634 and 1640 and currently preserved at the Prado Museum in Madrid. The title of the lively scene refers to the so-called Twelfth Night, a celebration corresponding to the Epiphany, precisely twelve days after Christmas, which was the last night of celebrations, in which one could drink beyond one's limits, dedicate oneself to love, to partner and gender swapping, a sort of carnival, during which the King of Misrule (literally the king of Misrule) was elected, a ruler in reverse who imposed his laws, subverting rules and behaviors. This work, like many others by Teniers, had such success linked to the numerous commissions from royals and aristocrats during the 18th century, as to induce a large posthumous production of copyists, many of whom even signed with the artist's name. The painting presented here has several paint losses, to be remedied. It is in a late 19th century frame, adapted for size.

Oil on canvas. Northern Italian school of the 19th century. The landscape depicts a wide countryside that opens onto the Alpine mountain range, preceded by the gentler pre-Alpine hill slopes; on the central path, which runs straight and perpendicular to the reliefs, a commoner is passing with his mule. The atmosphere is that of the end of the day, with pink shades illuminating the snow-capped peak. A very similar subject can be found in the production of the circle of Carlo Canella (1800 -1879), the Veronese artist known above all for his city views. The work is presented in a late 19th-century frame.

Oil on canvas. Half-length portrait of an elderly peasant couple, she with her head covered by a red scarf, he with a traditional headdress; the two faces emerge from the dark background with dignified and serene expressions. The painting is presented in a contemporary frame.

Medallions printed on copper plates. The eight medallions are from the series of medals of "Illustrious Italian Men". These eight in particular depict the profiles of eight illustrious men from the world of art and science: Antonio Allegri known as Correggio, Andrea Appiani, Benvenuto Cellini, Andrea Palladio, Scipione Maffei, Galileo Galilei, Francesco Guicciardini and Girolamo Vida. They are mounted on a cardboard panel covered in velvet and framed in a period frame.