Alessandro Magnasco, called il Lissandrino, Antonio Francesco Peruzzini

With Whitfield Fine Art, London;
From whom acquired by William F. Reilly, New York, 2001;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

L. Muti and D. de Sarno Prignano, A tu per tu con la pittura: studi e ricerche di storia dell'arte, Faenza 2002, pp. 327–328, 337, reproduced, fig. 23.

The canvas has a fairly recent a sensitive relining with the impasto throughout wonderfully preserved. The varnish is clear and even, there are no major damages visible bar some frame abrasion at the lower left edge. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals scattered strengthening's and retouching's throughout, the main concentration of which is along the upper margin and at the top right of the sky, throughout the clouds. There are some retouching's in the roof of the pavilion in the foreground and in the dark tones at the lower left corner. Otherwise the other retouching's are sensitively executed and more minor. The overall condition is good. This lot is offered in a gilt and black painted wood frame in good condition withy only some chips and losses.
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This landscape is a fine example of the collaborative working relationship between Magnasco and Peruzzini. It can be dated to circa 1715–1717, the moment when the former was working in Milan after a successful six-year period in Florence under the employ of Ferdinando de’Medici. The characteristic vigour of Magnasco's figure painting technique led to great commercial success in his own day, though his artistic personality was largely ignored during the second half of the 18th and the entire 19th century. It was not until Benno Geiger's 'rediscovery' of the artist in the early 20th century that Magnasco resumed his rightful place in the history of North Italian landscape painting. Alessandro was born in Genoa, the son of the painter Stefano Magnasco, and he probably travelled to Milan as a young man in 1681–82. There he worked as a figure-painter (figurista) for a number of landscapists, collaborating with the architectural-painter Clemente Spera and most successfully with the Ancona born landscape-painter Antonio Francesco Peruzzini, as attested to by the biographer Carlo Giuseppe Ratti (1737–1795).

Dr Daniele de Sarno has previously endorsed the attribution of this picture to Magnasco and Peruzzini, as well as the dating to circa 1715–1717.