The Cherry Seller G.f. Cipper—todeschini

This brilliant composition depicts a lively exchange between two ordinary figures—a street vendor and a customer—as they haggle over a bunch of cherries. The work exemplifies the characteristic style of Giacomo Francesco Cipper, known as Todeschini, for genre scenes enlivened by grotesque figures and theatrical gestures.
The vendor, wearing a straw hat adorned with feathers and colorful clothing, stands out in the foreground with a captivating expression as he offers the cherries to a customer with shrewd eyes and an ironic smile. The warm, luminous color palette, the textural rendering of the clothing, and the characterization of the faces—executed with quick, decisive brushstrokes—demonstrate the painter’s full expressive maturity.
The simple, almost abstract setting focuses all attention on the theatricality of the scene and the visual narrative, in an effective synthesis of genre painting and comic spirit. The painting is a refined example of the genre that made Todeschini famous in early 18th-century Lombardy, appreciated as much by bourgeois patrons as by European collectors.

Born in Feldkich, Austria, he was active in northern Italy during the first half of the 18th century, primarily in Milan, the Brescia area, and the Bergamo area.

Some of his numerous works, signed “Cipper,” Zipper, or Cipri accompanied by his German surname, are dated between 1705 (Gypsy Scene from the Geri Collection in Milan) and 1736 (Painter in His Studio, Hampton Court). A genre painter, he embraced Northern European culture and viewed the works of Pietro Bellotto with interest. Todeschini’s prolific work, characterized by a lighthearted tone, fits into the diverse tradition of painting with popular subjects that enjoyed particular success in Lombardy and Central Europe, reaching its most candid and powerful expression in Pitocchetto

dimensions with frame: 61 x 74 x 4.5

dimensions without frame: 44.5 x 59.5

price: 6,200€