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Artworks:

Giovanni Giacometti

Nell'Osteria, 1915
oil on canvas
81.5 x 92.0 cm
Although he had the habit of going outdoors and painting the landscapes of his native valley in direct contact with nature, Giovanni Giacometti also created portraits, as well as interior scenes inspired by his own everyday life, simple pleasures enjoyed with his family or in the company of other inhabitants of the region. The artist often did studies in preparation for these compositions with characters, taking the time to observe his models.

The painting Nell’Osteria (At the Tavern) was preceded by two sketches and followed by a more elaborate painting, now housed at the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne. Echoing the realist paintings of centuries past, and evoking the ordinary world in a way that is reminiscent of Gauguin, this everyday scene depicts land workers sharing a bottle of wine, seated at a table under a portico in the village tavern.

Their wide-brimmed felt hats and red scarves suggest they are the relatively well-paid farmers from Bergamo, who were known to work every haymaking season in Maloja, the alpine pasture where Giacometti spent his summers. At the front of the composition one can make out an empty stool, reserved for the viewer perhaps, or maybe the artist himself had just vacated it. Giovanni Giacometti was very fond of the local life in his native region, and he regularly spent time with its villagers and mountain dwellers, often inviting them to his studio to show them his work.

The artist completed Nell’Osteria in the isolation of the war years, at a time when he was moving away from pointillism’s little vibrant dabs, in favor of longer, quicker, more spontaneous brushstrokes like those used in this expressive study. Dominated by yellows, reds, greens and browns, the color is placed exclusively in the service of light, which shapes the entire composition.

Reflecting intense sunshine, the background of the painting is bathed in a brilliant yellow that can be found in many other portraits the artist painted in those years. Marking the various faces with strong contrasts, clearly giving the characters clear-cut contours, and stamping the table with the imposing shadow of the figure whose back is facing us, light once again lies at the heart of Giovanni Giacometti’s pictorial research.
Giovanni Giacometti, Nell'Osteria, Dans la Taverne, 1915