GIOVANNI BATTISTA QUADRONE Lot n° 710

Mondovì, 1844 - Turin, 1898 Per un osso Signed G B Quadrone and dated 90 lower right Oil on panel, 26.3X42.6 cm Provenance: Florence, Galleria Spinetti Milan, private collection Our painter was nicknamed the Piedmontese Flemish for the masterful execution of his paintings and the perfect verism; he studied at the Accademia Albertina in Turin, a pupil of Gaetano Ferri and exhibited for the first time in 1863, in Florence and Turin, participating then in all the most important Italian and foreign art events, in Munich, Vienna, Dresden. He lived a long time in Paris, where he met Meissonier and De Nittis: but in Turin, in 1892, he was awarded the King's gold medal, and he was also awarded the great gold medal in Florence, in 1897. At first he preferred historical subjects such as Vittor Pisani in prison and Hamlet in the cemetery, then, through the acquaintance of other artists such as Pisani and Fortuny, he turned to genre painting in costume and popular painting, a taste to which he remained faithful all his life, thus becoming the best genre painter in Piedmont. Careful, clear, interesting for the serene tonal unity of his paintings, even though they are so descriptive, Quadrone is one of the artists who nourished Italian painting in the neoclassical and romantic period, before the impressionist era. His passion for hunting and for dogs, which he painted with great verism and mastery, led him to work successfully on hunting subjects, so much so that none of his paintings remained unsold in exhibitions and shows. A printed version, executed by the engraver Celestino Turletti, of the work Per un osso by Giovanni Battista Quadrone is known in a sheet now in the Castello di Racconigi in Turin. Reference bibliography: G.L. Marini, Quadrone. Tutte le opere, Turin 1998, ad vocem G. Daddi, A. Ranzi, G.L. Marini, Cecconi, Mariani, Quadrone: caccia e natura nella pittura italiana dell'Ottocento, Florence, 2003, ad vocem