Giuseppe Castiglione

GIUSEPPE CASTIGLIONE (Naples, 1829-1908)
"River landscape with classical ruins".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 27.5 x 50.5 cm; 49 x 72 x 8 cm (frame).

This evocative painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian master of romantic landscape painting, represents a serene and majestic river whose surface, treated with mastery, displays a myriad of subtle and brittle reflections, captured with a pictorial sensitivity that reveals both the observation of the natural and the symbolic charge of the landscape. Over the waters, the remains of classical architecture emerge (columns, arches, architraves) eroded by time and colonized by moss, which line up in a diminishing perspective until they are lost in the distance. These ruined architectural elements are emblems of romantic melancholy. A solitary boat rests next to a small wooded islet. The composition is interested in highlighting the contrast between the natural and the built. The sky is reflected in the river, integrating everything in a humid and poetic atmosphere. Giuseppe Castiglione regularly cultivated this type of scene, in which the motif of the river ruins acquires an elegiac tone. The artist produced several versions of this same theme, as evidenced by the work entitled "Pescatorelli lungo il fiume", auctioned at Christie's (lot 122), where he introduces compositional variants such as the inclusion of human figures - fishermen - or the modification in the scale and arrangement of the architectural remains.

Giuseppe Castiglione was an Italian artist known for his genre paintings, landscapes and portraits. Castiglione was born in Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He moved to Paris early in his career and is believed to have studied painting there. He began exhibiting his paintings in Paris and Turin. He was a member of the Société des Artistes Français and received an honorable mention at the Salon exhibition of 1861. He was awarded a medal at the 1869 Salon exhibition. At the Universal Exposition of 1900, Castiglione was awarded a bronze medal. He was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1893. These include: Le Salon Carré, 1861 (preserved in the Louvre Museum, Paris), "Visiting Uncle Cardinal" (Philadelphia Exhibition, 1876, medal); "The Terrace of the Royal Palace of Naples," Paris, 1877; "View of Haddon Hall, England, invaded by Cromwell's Soldiers" (Paris Exhibition of 1878), among others.