“Oliveto a Monte Ripaldi” is a significant testimony to the final pictorial phase of Ottone Rosai, created in 1957, the year of his death. The work fits fully within the artist’s mature production, characterized by an essential and strongly meditative vision of the Tuscan landscape.
The subject depicts an olive grove arranged in the foreground, rendered through a succession of sturdy trunks and compact crowns, painted with broad and controlled brushstrokes. However, what emerges most clearly is the horizontal compositional structure, emphasized by the wall and the buildings in the background, which establish a rigorous balance between nature and architecture. Consequently, the landscape is not described in a naturalistic sense, but constructed as a mental and symbolic space.
From a chromatic point of view, Rosai uses earthy and muted tones, alternating dusty greens, warm browns and luminous greys. Moreover, the pictorial matter appears dry and synthetic, consistent with his search for a sober and anti-rhetorical painting. At the same time, the simplification of the forms gives the work a character of solemn stillness, typical of his later poetics.
Description: Oil on canvas, signed lower right O. Rosai, bearing date 1957 on the reverse, label from Galleria De Foscherari – Bologna, label and stamp from Galleria La Nuova Pesa – Rome and another label, H cm 50×70
Notes: The work was declared authentic by judgment 2531/81 of the Court of Prato by order of 10 October 1981 under point 7 with the title ‘Paesaggio con ulivi contro un muro orizzontale ed edifici’.
Provenance: Galleria De Foscherari – Bologna.
Hammer Price: € 13.230,00
Auction 51 – 12 April 2022 – Modern and Contemporary Art, Graphics and Multiples
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