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LOT 11

Gottardo Fidele Ponziano Piazzoni, (1872-1945)

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The Soil 38 x 38in framed 42 1/4 x 42 1/4in

The Soil
signed and dated 'GPIAZZONI 25' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 38in
framed 42 1/4 x 42 1/4in
Painted in 1925.

Provenance
The artist.
Mireille Beatrice Piazzoni Wood, the artist's daughter, by descent.
Property from the Estate of Russell Chatham.

Literature
T.W. Lilienthal, "A Note on Gottardo Piazzoni, 1872-1945," California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1, March 1959, p. 8.

Exhibition
San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, Second Annual Exhibition of Southern California, 1927. Recipient of the Fine Art Society Prize.
San Francisco, California Historical Society, Exhibition of Paintings by Gottardo Piazzoni, 1872 - 1945, April 14 - May 20, 1959.

The Soil loomed large in Russell Chatham's early imagination and shaped his own work. In his book One Hundred Paintings, Chatham reflected on the work in his essay, "Family, Friends and Art":

'When I was two years old we moved into a house on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco. It had two stories of high ceilings, inlaid floors, leaded glass and marble fireplaces. The effect was stern and gloomy, quintessential San Francisco piss elegance.

'In the living room above the couch, between two windows facing the street, hung a painting by my grandfather, Gottardo Piazzoni. It was called The Soil. I would frequently climb onto the couch to look at it up close, enthralled and mystified. The tilled ground in the foreground held my child's attention as would looking into a fire, and the architectural cloud formation in the sky seemed to speak in a voice from above. I entered the world of this painting completely, as if it were a looking glass.

'Whenever my mother caught me with my nose inches from this picture, she would say in her sternest voice, "Don't touch the painting. Papa says you must never touch a painting." I assumed this meant it was a sacred object, like a crucifix in the Catholic cathedral where we sometimes went to light votive candles.

'By the time I was sixteen or seventeen I must have painted several hundred versions of that one painting, never once approaching an understanding of it. Even now, after I have seen a great many of the world's finest landscape paintings, none surpass this work's deceptive simplicity. It is wholely without artifice, its only motive an absolute love of the earth. The painting is random, sublime and plain; tragically and mysteriously beautiful.'

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[ translate ]

The Soil 38 x 38in framed 42 1/4 x 42 1/4in

The Soil
signed and dated 'GPIAZZONI 25' (lower left)
oil on canvas
38 x 38in
framed 42 1/4 x 42 1/4in
Painted in 1925.

Provenance
The artist.
Mireille Beatrice Piazzoni Wood, the artist's daughter, by descent.
Property from the Estate of Russell Chatham.

Literature
T.W. Lilienthal, "A Note on Gottardo Piazzoni, 1872-1945," California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1, March 1959, p. 8.

Exhibition
San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, Second Annual Exhibition of Southern California, 1927. Recipient of the Fine Art Society Prize.
San Francisco, California Historical Society, Exhibition of Paintings by Gottardo Piazzoni, 1872 - 1945, April 14 - May 20, 1959.

The Soil loomed large in Russell Chatham's early imagination and shaped his own work. In his book One Hundred Paintings, Chatham reflected on the work in his essay, "Family, Friends and Art":

'When I was two years old we moved into a house on Pacific Avenue in San Francisco. It had two stories of high ceilings, inlaid floors, leaded glass and marble fireplaces. The effect was stern and gloomy, quintessential San Francisco piss elegance.

'In the living room above the couch, between two windows facing the street, hung a painting by my grandfather, Gottardo Piazzoni. It was called The Soil. I would frequently climb onto the couch to look at it up close, enthralled and mystified. The tilled ground in the foreground held my child's attention as would looking into a fire, and the architectural cloud formation in the sky seemed to speak in a voice from above. I entered the world of this painting completely, as if it were a looking glass.

'Whenever my mother caught me with my nose inches from this picture, she would say in her sternest voice, "Don't touch the painting. Papa says you must never touch a painting." I assumed this meant it was a sacred object, like a crucifix in the Catholic cathedral where we sometimes went to light votive candles.

'By the time I was sixteen or seventeen I must have painted several hundred versions of that one painting, never once approaching an understanding of it. Even now, after I have seen a great many of the world's finest landscape paintings, none surpass this work's deceptive simplicity. It is wholely without artifice, its only motive an absolute love of the earth. The painting is random, sublime and plain; tragically and mysteriously beautiful.'

[ translate ]
Sale price
Unlock
Estimate
Unlock
Time, Location
04 Aug 2020
USA, Los Angeles, CA
Auction House
Unlock