Giuseppe Mascarini (1877-1954) - Small vegetable garden

Giuseppe Mascarini (Bologna 1877 - Milan 1954) Oil painting on canvas depicting two farmers working in a vegetable garden. Canvas dimensions: width 65 cm, height 76 cm Signed lower right G.Mascarini Published "Giuseppe Mascarini 1887-1954. A palette between two centuries" Skira Edition 2016 - page 189 table 322 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 first 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, divisionism, can be found in his paintings from the first decades of the 20th century. The large canvases belong to this period “Il Sogno” (The Dream) 1909, “La Visitatrice” (The Visitor) 1909, “Ballata Antica” (Ancient Ballad) 1916 and the large alpine landscapes where the tripartition of the horizons, the divisionism, the skies that lead towards infinity, the visual perception recall reminiscences of Puvis Chevannes, 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 generators of inspiration. In his figure paintings he prefers to observe rather than interpret arbitrarily, to stay as close as possible to the subject rather than load it with extreme meanings. His brushstrokes, the strength of drawing and warmth always suggest a vision of calm, serene and familiar, a warm unity of tone, a measure, a contained and spontaneous impetus.