Scene In A Venetian Canal By Cosimo Privato (venice 1899-1971)

This monumental painting depicting a scene in a Venetian canal was executed in an impressionist style by Cosimo Privato (1899-Venice-1971), one of the most remarkable and original painters of the "old guard" of the lagoon, the one who became known at the end of the 1920s.

He always lived in Venice and rarely left his city. He was the first among his friends and contemporaries (Novati, Mori, Seibezzi, Ravenna, Dalla Zorza, Bergamini, etc.) to achieve success. In 1926 he was welcomed at the Biennale, where he exhibited at each edition until 1938. In 1930 he was the youngest exhibitor at the Biennale; in 1934 a large wall of seven works was dedicated to him. He exhibited every year at the Opera Bevilacqua La Masa from 1920 to 1940. Between the 1920s and 1930s, he regularly participated in exhibitions: it is enough to mention the Quadriennale of Rome in 1935, the famous Pittsburgh Exhibition (USA) in 1932, the exhibitions in Prague, Vienna, Warsaw, Athens and Sofia organized by the Biennale, the first International Exhibition of Fiume in 1925; as well as the International of Decorative Arts of Monza, the Permanente of Milan, the Milan Biennales, the Regional Exhibitions of Padua and Vicenza. He organized his first solo exhibition at the Celentano Gallery in Milan in 1930; others followed in Padua, Trieste, Bergamo, Verona and Venice (Sandrì Gallery, 1941). The Milan exhibition (Mediolanum Gallery, 1946) was his last important solo exhibition. Others followed, but few in number, in the post-war period, notably in Trieste. He lived increasingly in seclusion, participating in sporadic group exhibitions. After his death, posthumous tributes were organized, the first in October 1971 in Venice, at the San Vidal Gallery. Many works were commissioned by Privato, starting with the cartoons for the mosaic decoration of the reception hall of the Royal Palace in Cairo. He maintained frequent contacts, always in the 1920s and 1930s, but also later, with national and foreign dealers, who purchased his works. His paintings received several awards at official exhibitions and were acquired. Among his purchases are those of the King at the 1932 Biennale, of the Municipality of Venice and other organizations at the Bevilacqua La Masa exhibitions in 1927-29-31-32, of the Ministry of Public Instruction for the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, of the Municipality of Bari, of the Bank of Italy and the Savings Bank of Venice, of the Prefecture of Venice. Many critics have written about him, from Ojetti to Damerini, from Nebbia to Pozzi, from Celentano to Passarella, from Perocco to Rizzi. This exhibition in Mestre is the first retrospective of an anthological nature, as well as the occasion for the first real publication, besides the few brochures and catalogs that survive.

Sources: complete biography online: https://www.cosimoprivato.it.
Inscription: signed lower right.
Technique: oil on canvas, original period frame.
Dimensions: without frame: l 100.5 x h 69.5 cm; with frame: 126 x 94 cm.
Condition: very good.