POMPEO MARIANI

Monza, 1857 - Bordighera, 1927 Bordighera, the return from fishing Signed Mariani, Bordighera and dated lower right Oil on canvas, cm 50.3X81 Provenance: Milan, private collection The painting depicts the return of fishermen to the shore on a day of heavy seas, and traces, overall, the pattern of some typical compositions by Pompeo Mariani. Among these, the one closest in terms of figures is the one entitled Departure of the Fishermen, dated 1918, (See M. Madruzza di Giovanni, Pompeo Mariani. Catalogo ragionato, Milan 1997, p. 551, no. 1576). The title given on our canvas by the painter reveals that it is one of the many marinas painted by Pompeo Mariani in Bordighera, the coastal town where he settled several times from 1907 until his death in 1927. The artist, pushed toward landscape painting by Moses Bianchi, whose nephew he was, loved to portray the sea in all its most spectacular manifestations, from gales to sunsets, with a style that, starting from the descriptive frankness of his early works, became increasingly immediate, with brushstrokes now made of small touches, now of long, full-bodied strokes, always aimed at investigating atmospheric phenomena and light effects. The work was registered by the Pompeo Mariani Archive under the number PM 0060. Reference bibliography: P. Lunardi Versienti, Pompeo Mariani 1857-1927. La storia inedita di un grande pittore dell'Ottocento, Cinisello Balsamo 2017, ad vocem