Amedeo Ghesio Volpengo - Characters in Waiting

The subject falls within the genre scene category, that is, the depiction of an episode of everyday life that, apparently, lacks any significant element. These types of domestic subjects were long considered minor and only began to spread in Western art starting in the 17th century. Only with the development of 19th-century realism did everyday subjects become considered as important as historical or religious ones. The present work is part of a series in which the artist Amedeo Ghesio Volpengo offers a highly original interpretation of a scene taken from everyday reality. Small figures appear almost lost in decontextualized landscapes. All this gives the composition an almost metaphysical and existential quality, a paradoxical contrast to the artist's lively impressionistic-veristic language.

This small-format work, which has a more sketchy quality compared to Ghesio Volpengo's official production, reveals an unusual side of the great Turin artist. We can appreciate a more spontaneous and instinctive Volpengo, compared to his balanced compositions. The strokes used to depict this small scene are rapid, and the forms come to life with a few quick strokes. There is, in short, a prevailing impressionistic quality, indicating the desire to create a work fully in keeping with a realist aesthetic, yet imbued with an expressiveness rooted in the painter's gestures. Color is predominant, both in the description of space, through tonal variations, and in the capture of all the light vibrations, with the dense hatching of the brushstrokes.

Amedeo Ghesio Volpengo, Turin 1847 – 1889. Born into an aristocratic family from Cuneo, he began painting as a self-taught artist and later attended the Albertina Academy in Turin. He developed a sensitive landscape painter, devoted to the "poetry of reality" he learned from Fontanesi. He was also attracted to the representation of the human figure and drew primarily in charcoal. His works, purchased primarily in France, were exhibited in Turin, Milan, Genoa, and Rome (1883, Seven Studies from Life). Numerous canvases are held at the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna in Turin (Twilight at Bastia di Mondovì, exhibited in Turin in 1870; Return to Evening in Vanchiglia, exhibited in Turin in 1872; Staircase of the Castello del Valentino, Self-portrait, Last Touches, Ghesio in his Studio).

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