ANTON SMINCK VAN PITLOO
(Arnhem, 1790 – Naples, 1837)
View of Capo di Zafferano in Palermo
Oil on canvas, cm. 25.5 x 32
Signed “A. PITLOO” lower left
Frame size, cm. 35 x 42 x 4 approx.
NOTE: Intermidiart catalog publication. Signed work. Work from a Sicilian collection. Certificate of Lawful Provenance. Work with gilded frame (defects):
This clear glimpse of a landscape with a representation of the Gulf of Palermo with a View of Capo di Zafferano, signed and coming from an important Sicilian collection, undoubtedly belongs to the Dutch master Anton Sminck van Pitloo (Arnhem, 1790 – Naples, 1837).
Executed on canvas, in this work the artist gives us – with a close-up shot – one of the many visions of daily scenes of beautiful Sicily. The view is reduced to an inlay of colors: brown-golden earths for the ground and the architecture; the figures, the sea, the mountain and the sky, which stand out lyrically in a context of bright and vibrant colors. The work in question, moreover, is characterized by a full-bodied and pasty painting, made in “spots”, capable of capturing the beauty and landscape contradictions of the land represented with a lyrical vision. The representation of the View of Capo di Zafferano in Palermo and the exaltation of light and color are distinctive elements of this work.
Obviously trained in his native Holland and then in Napoleonic France, Anton Sminck van Pitloo developed his most peculiar art in Italy, staying between Rome and (then permanently) Naples, where initially indulging in the Hackettian vedutism so in vogue in the Bourbon court, our artist achieved rapid success, coming in a short time to conquer the chair of Landscape at the local Royal Institute of Fine Arts. Pitloo’s artistic research was then however just beginning, and then led, as is known, to the first great renewal that Neapolitan painting faced in the nineteenth century, namely the experience of the Posillipo School. The favorite terrain of experimentation was in all probability the many small-format oils that the author had the opportunity to create in his short life, which thus give us the whole evolution of a great artistic journey of undisputed value.
In the proposed work Pitloo, therefore, shows that he has already received and reworked the lesson of the English landscape painters Richard Parkes Bonington (who also had the opportunity to influence the barbisonniers and Camille Corot, also among our models) and above all Joseph Mallord William Turner, arriving at dematerializing his own brush strokes in a true impressionist stain painting. The landscape depicted, already the subject of other paintings by the author, shows the distant landscape profile of Capo di Zafferano on the horizon, a natural glimpse seen in the countryside of Palermo.
Color is predominant, both in the description of space, through tonal variations, and in the recording of all the light vibrations, with the dense hatching of the brush strokes.
The work of excellent artistic and chromatic rendering is in good condition with signs of aging visible in the photos. In sunlight, a fine craquelé compatible with the age of the painting is visible. At the bottom left it bears the signature “A. PITLOO”. The dimensions of the canvas are cm. 25.5 x 32.
The painting, of good pictorial quality, is embellished with a golden frame (frame size, cm. 35 x 42 x 4 approx., presence of defects). “The frame shown in the photos above has been added to the artwork by the seller or a third party. The frame is provided to you at no additional cost so that it is ready to display as soon as it arrives. The frame is included as a courtesy and is not considered an integral part of the artwork. Therefore, any potential damage to the frame that does not affect the artwork itself will not be accepted as a valid reason to open a complaint or request cancellation of the order.”
PROVENANCE: Sicilian Private Collection
PUBLICATION:
Unpublished;
MYTHS AND TERRITORY in Sicily with a thousand cultures. INEDITA QUADRERIA general catalogue of the paintings in the collection of the cycle “Myths and the territory”, Editore Lab_04, Marsala, 2024.