Nocturne, Impression. Venice, Dated 1924 – Gino Albieri (1881–1949)

Nocturne, Impression. Venice, 1924 – Gino Albieri (1881–1949)

Oil on panel.
Signed lower right and dated 1924, with signature and title of painting also on the reverse.

Dimensions:

framed 57 × 44 cm

unframed 34.5 × 48 cm

Late XIX century wood and plaster frame.

Gino Albieri (Cavarzere, near Venice, 1881 – Rome, 1949) was an Italian painter with an international and highly distinctive career. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, he spent about eight years in Cairo as a pupil of the Belgian painter Van Brugge, developing an early sensitivity to atmosphere and light. 

Dated 1924, this Venetian nocturne belongs to a mature phase of Albieri’s work, when his interest focused on urban night scenes and the expressive potential of artificial light. The composition is animated by small, loosely suggested figures, integrated into an urban setting constructed through rapid, pressed brushstrokes. Rather than describing forms analytically, the painting relies on tonal contrasts and rhythmic touches to evoke space and depth.

The architecture is suggested rather than defined, while figures and setting merge into a unified nocturnal atmosphere, privileging visual impression over narrative detail. This approach reflects Albieri’s broader artistic language, shaped by his experience as an official war artist during the First World War and by his later experimental attitude toward vision and perspective.

In the post-war years Albieri exhibited widely in Italy and abroad; several of his works were acquired by the Italian Royal Family and by the Ministries of War and the Navy. In 1926, with government authorization, he executed eighteen paintings from the air aboard the M2 dirigible, now regarded as among the earliest Italian examples of aerial painting. He also exhibited in London and New York, and his work was acquired by the United States Government. He took part in the 23rd Venice Biennale in 1942.