Giuseppe Mascarini (1877-1954) - Portrait

Giuseppe Mascarini (Bologna 1877-Milan 1954) - Portrait of the Writer Jolanda Gianoli Curti Oil painting on panel with coeval frame Dimensions: 68x50cm signed and dated on the lower right: G. Mascarini 1939 Published in the Monograph "Giuseppe Mascarini 1887-1954. A Palette Between Two Centuries" Skira Edition 2016 - page 73, plate 54 He lived and worked permanently in Milan. He studied at the Brera Academy. Gifted in drawing and painting, he won prizes 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 asked 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 advanced in the climate of general renewal. Influences of themes such as symbolism, divisionism, are found in his paintings of the first decades of the '900. Belong to this period the great canvases "The dream" 1909, "The visitor" 1909, "Ancient ballad" 1916 and the great alpine landscapes where the tripartite division of horizons, divisionism, the skies that lead to infinity, the visual perception refer to reminiscences of Puvis Chevannes, Hodler and Segantini. Mascarini loves the mountains and during the summer stays the beautiful Val Bregaglia is the scene of many landscapes represented by him. But there is not only the landscape painting for Mascarini but also that of figure because nature and humanity are in him two equally living terms, both generators of 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 heat always suggest a vision of calm, serene and familiar, a warm unity of tone, a measure, a contained and spontaneous impetus.