Elena Recco (Naples 1654-Madrid 1715) - Still life of fish, 17th century cm 40 x cm 48, in frame cm 52 x cm 60 oil on canvas Present Expert opinion by Prof.Strinati. "Still Life of Fish" (oil on canvas, cm.37 x 47, in frame 50 x 62) is a work that falls well within the scope of the production of Elena Recco, a distinguished painter specialized in this genre, daughter of the great Neapolitan master Giuseppe Recco and long active alongside her father (as well as her little-known brother Nicola Maria) between Naples and the Royal Court of Spain to which she moved, following precisely her father, towards the end of the 17th century and where she remained for a long time, honored with very important and primary commissions. Based on Recco's (Naples 1654, Madrid 1715) known and documented biography, the painting under consideration here, from a stylistic and material point of view, certainly seems to me datable within the first decade of the eighteenth century, in the most mature phase of the distinguished artist's production. I come to this consideration by comparing our work above all with some paintings from the ancient Orsini collection of Gravina di Puglia (now totally dispersed in various properties) where truly remarkable Nature Morte di pesci by Elena Recco did indeed appear, even though the inventories sometimes erroneously report them under the name of the great father Giuseppe. I report in this regard as a school case, of great historical and artistic interest, a Natura Morta di pesci, extremely close to ours, published by Lucio Galante, in La Natura Morta in Italia, tomo secondo, Electa Milano 1989, p.971, no. 1183, under the name of Giuseppe Recco but actually an absolute masterpiece of his daughter Elena. Recco specialized exceedingly in the genre of fish painting, and our painting appears very significant for the author's typical and distinctive method of mixing images of fish as if they had been thrown in disarray on the fishmonger's counter, waiting to be distributed to various customers and patrons. The pictorial material in our case is thick and full-bodied and this too is a peculiar element that characterizes the production of this great,painter who deserves a place in her own right, and of absolute prominence, in the great and lofty history of Still Life in Naples between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.I conclude by noting the state of conservation of the painting under consideration here as very good and thus confirming its rather high intrinsic quality.I therefore estimate the painting in relation to current international market conditions at the quotation of E. 18,000.00 (eighteen thousand). In faith, Claudio Strinati"