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Count Arnaldo Casella Tamburini, Jr., Young Hussar
Count ARNALDO CASELLA TAMBURINI, Jr.
YOUNG HUSSAR
Count ARNALDO CASELLA TAMBURINI, Jr.
Florence, 1885 – 1936 Chicago
Pencil on paper
Sheet size: 62 × 39 cm / 24.4 × 15.4 in
With frame: 66.5 × 44 cm / 26.2 × 17.3 in
Signed and dated lower right: A. Tamburini Junior, Firenze, 1907
This large and striking drawing depicting a young soldier in the guise of a hussar is a compelling example of the early work of the distinguished Italian artist Arnaldo Casella Tamburini, Jr.
Formed within the refined artistic milieu of Tuscany — his father was himself a painter — Tamburini left Italy at an early age and settled in the United States, the country with which his later career and tragic fate would become inseparably linked. He would live there until his death in Chicago. The present drawing, signed and dated A. Tamburini Junior, Firenze, 1907, was executed in Florence at a very early stage of the artist’s career, revealing an already remarkable maturity of draftsmanship and a fully developed command of artistic language
The figure of the young hussar is conceived not merely as a military type, but as a deliberately aestheticized image. The emphasis on the body, the refined line, and the careful attention to pose and silhouette lend the drawing a pronounced sensuality that goes well beyond conventional genre representation. In this respect, the work strikingly anticipates the visual language of American graphic art of the 1920s — particularly the illustrations of artists such as J. C. Leyendecker, whose imagery is today often regarded as a cornerstone of early twentieth-century visual culture with a clear homoerotic undertone.
Seen in this light, the drawing is significant not only as an exceptionally early work by a future major artist, but also as a subtle and revealing example of a transitional aesthetic — poised between European academic tradition and the emerging visual modernity of early twentieth-century America.
YOUNG HUSSAR
Count ARNALDO CASELLA TAMBURINI, Jr.
Florence, 1885 – 1936 Chicago
Pencil on paper
Sheet size: 62 × 39 cm / 24.4 × 15.4 in
With frame: 66.5 × 44 cm / 26.2 × 17.3 in
Signed and dated lower right: A. Tamburini Junior, Firenze, 1907
This large and striking drawing depicting a young soldier in the guise of a hussar is a compelling example of the early work of the distinguished Italian artist Arnaldo Casella Tamburini, Jr.
Formed within the refined artistic milieu of Tuscany — his father was himself a painter — Tamburini left Italy at an early age and settled in the United States, the country with which his later career and tragic fate would become inseparably linked. He would live there until his death in Chicago. The present drawing, signed and dated A. Tamburini Junior, Firenze, 1907, was executed in Florence at a very early stage of the artist’s career, revealing an already remarkable maturity of draftsmanship and a fully developed command of artistic language
The figure of the young hussar is conceived not merely as a military type, but as a deliberately aestheticized image. The emphasis on the body, the refined line, and the careful attention to pose and silhouette lend the drawing a pronounced sensuality that goes well beyond conventional genre representation. In this respect, the work strikingly anticipates the visual language of American graphic art of the 1920s — particularly the illustrations of artists such as J. C. Leyendecker, whose imagery is today often regarded as a cornerstone of early twentieth-century visual culture with a clear homoerotic undertone.
Seen in this light, the drawing is significant not only as an exceptionally early work by a future major artist, but also as a subtle and revealing example of a transitional aesthetic — poised between European academic tradition and the emerging visual modernity of early twentieth-century America.
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