Paesaggio

Known primarily for his still-life paintings, Giorgio Morandi also had a close affinity for the landscape genre, as he extensively depicted his surroundings both from the window of his apartment in Bologna and at Grizzana, a small rural village in the Appenines where he often retreated during the summer months. Painted in 1935, on the eve of the Second World War, Paesaggio demonstrates how the artist transformed these rural scenes, using the simplest of means, into absorbing and evocative images.  The mid-1930s are among the most stylistically fruitful periods of Giorgio Morandi’s oeuvre. In fact, some of the richest still-life compositions, and largest and most inspiring landscapes were executed between 1934 and 1936; Paesaggio is undoubtedly one of them. With its austere brushstrokes, and the strong contrasts of light, the present lot is also a clear example of Morandi’s admiration for Paul Cézanne and how his influence is most visible in his landscapes. The painter was familiar with many of Cézanne’s landscapes, and is said to have loved La Montagne Saint-Victorie au grand pin of 1887, which was already reproduced in books and magazines in Italy since the 1920s.