Guido Caprotti

GUIDO CAPROTTI (Monza, Italy, 1887 - Avila, 1966).
"Night", Avila, 1939.
Oil on canvas.
Signed, dated and located in the lower left corner and on the back.
Provenance: Marivent Palace, Palma de Mallorca.
Measurements: 80 x 75 cm; 99 x 94 cm (frame).

This work belongs to the Spanish period of Guido Caprotti, when the artist developed a deep fascination for the Castilian landscape and its spiritual dimension. The scene represents a nocturnal view of Avila, dominated by a white and rotund architecture that is outlined under a deep blue sky, where a faint moon barely illuminates the silence of the surroundings.

Caprotti constructs the scene with a soft brushstroke, where volumes are simplified and forms acquire an almost metaphysical quality. The architecture, reduced to essential planes, and the isolated human presence evoke a poetic reading of the landscape, close to a certain noucentista sensibility and to the lyrical realism of the interwar period.

Caprotti became known through official French and Italian exhibitions, with his participation in the Venice Biennale of 1930 standing out. But then he settled in Spain, where he remained until his death. He is currently mainly represented in the capital of Avila, in the Palace of Superunda, where he lived, currently owned by the municipality. In 2013 an important anthological exhibition was dedicated to him in this palace.