Giorgio Morandi

Pier Maria Bardi, Milan
G. Bolognesi, Milan (acquired from the above in 1931)
Galleria Gussoni, Milan
Private Collection, Milan
Acquired by the present owner in Turin in the 1980s

Salsomaggiore, Grand Hôtel des Termes, Cinquant'anni di pittura Italiana, 1949
Milan, Società per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente, Il Novecento Italiano 1923-1933, 1983, no. 95, illustrated in the catalogue
Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Giorgio Morandi, 2000, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Lamberto Vitali, Morandi, Dipinti. Catalogo Generale, volume primo, 1913-1947, Milan, 1994, no. 68, illustrated

The canvas is unlined. Apart from three small spots of retouching to the green pigment on the left and some scattered small spots of retouching in the sky and along the framing edges, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the green tones are deeper in the original and not as blue as they apprear in the catalogue illustration.
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Whilst Giorgio Morandi's landscapes comprise a relatively small proportion of his oeuvre when compared to the still-lifes for which he is renowned, they dominated the early stages of the artist's career. The majority of his landscapes were painted at Grizzana, a small village in the Apennine hills near Bologna. Morandi often painted views from the windows of the house which he occupied there during the summer months (fig. 1), choosing to contemplate his work in the studio rather than paint en plein air. While his depictions of the courtyard of his studio in Via Fondazza are usually frontal, enclosed views of the city's buildings and walls, in Grizzana Morandi was able to paint broader horizons and distant views of hills and woods.

 

Landscape painting presents a rather different set of challenges to a still-life. The rural panorama is transient – subject to constant changes in light and atmosphere, and offers few definite contours with which to define forms. The present work, painted in 1921, demonstrates Morandi's ability to defy such conditions through sophisticated rendering of tone and volume. The crystalline blue sky is allowed to recede behind a foreground of vital, fluid green. A palpable sense of movement is created by the dynamic contrast of light and dark tones, whilst the composition exhibits all of the structural rigidity that one sees in Morandi's still-lifes.

 

Writing about the conception of his landscapes, Giuliano Briganti commented: 'It is not difficult to imagine Morandi at the window of the house in Grizzana staring steadily into the distance, his eyes narrowed to perceive some detail, searching for the right light to amplify, simplify and transfigure it, to make it into a painting by the process of thoughtful elaboration first in the mind and then on canvas' (G. Briganti, 'Morandi's Landscapes' in Giorgio Morandi (exhibition catalogue), Accademia Italiana delle Arti e delle Arti Applicate, London, 1989, p. 31).