Riccardo Pellegrini (milan 1863 - Crescenzago 1934), Spanish Party Before The Bullfight

Riccardo Pellegrini (Milan 1863 - Crescenzago 1934)
Spanish party before the bullfight
Oil on canvas, 29 x 39 - with frame, cm 45 x 55
The painting, given for signature, is certainly by the hand of the Milanese painter Riccardo Pellegrini. Born in Milan in 1863, he was formed in the context of romantic Milan at the end of the 19th century. Thereafter, he continued his studies in Rome and especially in Naples, where he was a pupil of the Neapolitan painter Domenico Morelli (Naples 1823-Naples 1901). He rarely exhibited in Italy but always successfully: as in Milan in 1883 at the Exhibition of Fine Arts at the Palazzo di Brera. Traveling is important for him, allowing him to know new realities and deepen his artistic knowledge, and so we find him first in England in France and finally in Spain, to which he will remain strongly linked. In 1912, in London, he won the Muller competition for the illustrations of "Gil Blas" by Alain - René Lesage, a French literary journal, in which important novels such as Germinal and L'opera del celebrated Emile were published. Zola. He was then in charge of the illustrations for a Spanish edition of Don Quixote and thanks to his drawing skills, he collaborated with the main European magazines. In his vast pictorial production appear landscapes, genre and costume scenes characterized by a disengaged tone and pleasant subjects, sometimes inspired by the gypsy world known in Spain, as in the case of the work presented here. In the frame examined, the natural perspective is enriched by numerous figures dressed in traditional clothing and horses richly dressed in fabrics and colored garlands. The attention is catalyzed by the figure of the central white horse, an artefact that makes the composition, also static, with more dynamism. In the background, done with quick, sweeping brushstrokes, a snow-capped mountain closes the scene. The pictorial conduct is characterized by a weft of rich and full-bodied brushstrokes that define the first floor, while Pellegrini adopts a more fluid and loose drafting for the figures placed in the background. Painter with great pictorial abilities, he uses bright and clear colors extending them to spots and following a careful study of lights and shadows. His ability to color, vibrant and effective, which makes his canvases pleasant, brought him numerous distinctions and recognitions, including a personal exhibition organized in 1929 in the halls of the Bottega della Poesia in Milan. Some of his most important works are kept in important Italian and foreign museums: the Flower Market in Spain in the Galleries of Modern Art in Piacenza, Rustic Courtyard in the Carrara Academy in Bergamo, Open Air Sundays in the Museums Civics of Pavia, On the Promenade des Anglais, Notes from Spain, Souvenir of Seville, View of Seville, his sketch Malta which is in the Museum of Art in Berlin, The ridda in the Gofort Museum in Stuttgart, The kiss of the sun which is kept in the Galerie Goupil in Paris.