Noèl Quintavalle (1893-1975) "portrait Of A Young Woman Posing" Dated 1940.

Oil on canvas portrait by Noël Quintavalle (1893-1975), depicting a young woman seated in a pose, covered by a light sheet. Dated 1940, the work comes from the famous Rotta Gallery in Genoa. Painted on its first canvas, it has never been restored.
With the frame, it measures 89 cm x 69 cm.
The painting measures 65 cm x 45 cm.

Noël Caterino Giulio Quintavalle was born in Ferrara on December 23, 1893, to parents of Mantuan origin. After a childhood spent in Ferrara, Pavia, and Milan, he studied art at the Brera Academy, quickly establishing himself as an eclectic figure capable of exploring painting, engraving, writing, sculpture, and architecture. He participated in the First World War as an Alpine officer, distinguishing himself on Monte Nero and being decorated for military valor; the war experience profoundly influenced his life and cultural output. Upon returning to Milan, he was active in the city's artistic and cultural organizations, also directing the Galleria Pesaro. In the 1950s, he lived for a period in South America, before returning to Italy and settling in Alassio, where he died in 1975.
A multifaceted artist, Quintavalle developed a body of work that combined figurative sensitivity, expressive tension, and a strong narrative component. His paintings and prints, often signed with the pseudonym "Noëlqui," are marked by memories of the Alpine War, translated into intense images, drawings, woodcuts, and graphic cycles of strong emotional impact. At the same time, he cultivated a vast literary activity, publishing poems and prose inspired by the war experience and the memory of fallen comrades. Attentive to tradition yet open to experimentation, he alternated symbolic subjects, scenes of military life, and landscapes, even during his stay in South America, where he continued to paint oils, now held in local collections. His production reflects a restless temperament and a constant search for a synthesis between art, life and historical testimony.