Gaetano Chierici

This work is testament to the artist's fame as one of the most celebrated Italian genre painters of the nineteenth century. It is exemplary of his incredible attention to detail, his hyper-realistic style and his mastery at capturing the intensity of a scene.

Painted in 1887, this large oil work depicts a small girl knocked from her bench by a charging pack of geese. She is captured with a shocked expression and mid-fall. As she stares directly at the leader of the gaggle, she most likely emits a very loud scream. The composition is ambitious and effective and there is a plethora of detail for the viewer; for instance, expertly painted broken china and scraps of food litter the foreground and a cat and her kittens cautiously approach the scene. One tiny orange kitten scrunches fabric under its paw, using it to pull itself up to get a better look. The door to the kitchen is slightly ajar to the right of the scene, and the beak of a goose just showing, suggests there are more to come.

Chierici painted a number of versions of this subject and exhibited them at various international exhibitions. One example, a larger version painted in 1888, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 2019, lot 14.