Alfredo Pina (1887–1966) - “reaper Sharpening His Scythe”

Bronze cast
Black patina with subtle green undertones
Signed in wax “A. Pina” on the rim
Lost-wax casting with no foundry marks
Sits on a wooden base
Circa 1925/1930

Dimensions without the base
Height: 27 cm
Length: 40 cm – Depth: 24.5 cm

Paris-Manaus Gallery

Biography:
Alfredo PINA (1887–1966)

Born in Milan (Italy)

After a brilliant academic career at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, crowned by the National Grand Prize for Sculpture in 1904— the equivalent of our Prix de Rome—Alfredo Pina spent three years in Rome before settling in Paris in 1911. Rodin took notice of one of his sculptures and asked him to join his studio as a craftsman; where he remained until Rodin’s death in 1917. He moved in the circle of Italian artists and became part of the Montparnasse art scene that would come to prominence in the 1920s.

With the support of the foundryman Valsuani, he exhibited a significant number of works in 1920 at the Galerie Allard. This exhibition was a greatsuccess, as was the one organized by the Society of Italian Artists, which he would later organize in 1929.

Captivated by the landscape of the Nièvre region along the Loire, he bought a a house in Mesves-sur-Loire, then the nearby stone quarries of Malvaux to fulfill his commissions for World War I war memorials; he created the one in Mesves, which features a bronze sculpture exhibited in 1920, *La Douleur*. He returned to Paris, then to Italy, wherehe entered a global competition launched by Mussolini, which he won with a design for a Monument to Dante. This was to be his magnum opus, but it was never realized.

Upon his return to France in 1929, he stayed in Paris for a while before settling permanently in Mesves with his wife.

He participated in exhibitions in Nevers and created busts of friends oracquaintances who were also his patrons. He died in 1966, forgotten by the Parisian art scene, in poverty.

The collection from his Mesves studio, acquired by the French government, was transferred to the museum in La Charité-sur-Loire in 1971. Pina, both in his portraits and in monumental sculpture, was clearly influenced by the themes of Rodin, but his artistic vocabulary was highly personal.