54 - Lia Cavanna (1934)

Lia Cavanna (1934) Splendor in the Woods Pastel on canvas 80.5 x 70.5 cm Signature: on the front, “Lia Cavanna” Date: on the front, “1992” Distinguishing features: on the reverse, a label containing information about the painting, the framer’s stamp, and a handwritten inscription bearing the number “2” Provenance: Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Certificates: photocertificate dated April 16, 1993, and signed by the artist Condition. Support: 80% (traces of moisture) Condition. Surface: 60% (mold spots) For direct WhatsApp assistance before and during the live auction: +39 346 12 999 80 // Direct assistance via WhatsApp before and during the auction: +39 346 12 999 80 After a series of stays in Paris and Brittany (1905–6, 1907, 1909), in 1909 Gino Rossi moved to Burano with his wife, Bice Levi Minzi, and remained there until 1913. The couple lived in a house with two separate studios in the Tre Ponti neighborhood; and around them an active colony of artists took root—the very same artists who exhibited at the Ca’ Pesaro exhibitions—open to the major trends in painting from across the Alps (Umberto Moggioli, Luigi Scopinich, Pio Semeghini). Thus began a particularly fruitful period in the Venetian artist’s career, during which, amid the silence and simple life of the lagoon island—so reminiscent of the Breton landscape— he was able to successfully put into practice the reflections on the instinctiveness of the brushstroke and the purity of color that he had developed in previous years through careful study of the paintings of Gauguin, Matisse, and Van Gogh. Among the Burano landscapes, “Canal with a Sailboat in Burano” is one of the most confident and vibrant. Constructed with broad, impasto brushstrokes, the work depicts a traditional Venetian boat—the so-called “topo” with a “third-rigged” sail—passing along the waters of a canal. This vessel is suited for coastal navigation and used primarily for freight transport. The formal and chromatic balance achieved among the elements of the composition is perfect: the wall that divides the space in two; the sail—with its intense orange hue—in the lower left, mirrored by the house in the upper right; the branches of the plant in the foreground that multiply into those of the trees in the background, the striking succession of yellow flowers, and the curved lines inherited from Van Gogh that, like an echo, radiate from the water to define the bushes and clouds. This brilliance and chromatic fluidity would soon give way, beginning in 1913, to a new phase characterized by a more constructive and structured style—the result of a renewed focus on Cézanne—with a somberness of tone and a dramatic quality of line that were not unrelated to his personal life. Sabrina Spinazzè