Giuseppe Mascarini (1877-1954) - Portrait of a Girl

GIUSEPPE MASCARINI (Bologna 1877 – Milan 1954) “Portrait of a Girl” Oil painting on panel, 45x31 cm, 1912 Signed lower left Published in "Giuseppe Mascarini 1887-1954. A palette between two centuries" Skira Edition 2016 - page 114 plate 134 Bibliography: Critical Notes by C. Carrà, La Mostra Della Permanente in “L’Ambrosiano”, 12/12/1936 He always lived and worked in Milan. He studied at the Brera Academy. Gifted for drawing and painting, he won awards in 1896 and 1897 when he participated for the first time in the Brera exhibitions. In 1900, the Academy appointed him "Honorary Member" and he was later called to be part of the permanent painting commission. He spent the early years of the century in Paris, where he studied the painting of the great masters of the past and followed the new pictorial trends that were advancing in the climate of general renewal. Influences of themes such as symbolism and divisionism can be found in his paintings from the first decades of the 20th century. The large canvases "The Dream" 1909, "The Visitor" 1909, "Ancient Ballad" 1916 and the large Alpine landscapes belong to this period, where the tripartition of the horizons, the divisionism, the skies that lead towards infinity, the visual perception recall reminders of Puvis Chevanners, Hodler and Segantini. Mascarini loves the mountains and during the summer stays the beautiful Val Bregaglia is the setting for many landscapes represented by him. But there is not only the landscape painting for Mascarini but also the figure painting because nature and humanity are in him two equally alive terms, both generating inspiration. In his figure paintings, he prefers to observe rather than interpret arbitrarily, to keep as close as possible to the subject rather than load it with extreme meanings. His brushstrokes, the strength of the drawing and the warmth always suggest a vision of calm serene and familiar, a warm unity of tone, a measure, a contained and spontaneous impetus. He exhibited at the Venice International Biennials from 1900. He participated in the Rome Quadrennials, the Turin International, all the social exhibitions of the "Permanente" of Milan, the annuals of Brera, the Fine Arts Exhibition of San Francisco in 1915. He organized personal exhibitions in Busto Arsizio in 1920, at Bottega di Poesia in Milan in 1926, at the Scopinich Gallery in Milan in 1931. In 1942 he organized another personal exhibition at the "Permanente". After the war, he resumed exhibiting at the Venice Biennials and at collective exhibitions in the Milan area.