GIOVANNI FATTORI | Horsemen

Edmondo Sacerdoti, Milan Purchased by the grand father of the present owners, probably from the above.

Giovanni Malesci, Catalogazione illustrata della pittura a olio di Giovanni Fattori, Novara, 1961, n°228 illustrated titled Cavalleggeri
L'Opera completa di Fattori, Milan 1970 n°384, titled Tre lancieri in una pianura

With its elongated format, its colours and its technique, « Horsemen" is typical of the military paintings executed by Giovanni Fattori during his life. He painted many military subjects, from large and ambitious battle scenes to smaller subjects showing everyday military life. Fattori was an active patriot and in 1848-49, during the revolutionary years, he interrupted his studies in order to help the democratic anti-Austrian party.Fattori is, with Silvestro Lega and Telemaco Signorini, one of the main artists of the "Macchiaioli" group . Born in Florence, the movement had the ambition to modernize the academic tradition prevalent in Italy in the first half of the XIXth century : the artists chose subjects taken from modern life and history, and used an innovating technique : spontaneous brushstrokes, juxtaposition of colours, strong contrasts.