Antonio Donghi (1897-1963)

Renowned for depicting everyday scenes in colourful, vivid, simplicity, Antonio Donghi displayed in his work characteristics aligned with naïve art, likened at the time to the work of Henri “le Douanier” Rousseau, Camille Bombois (see lots 28 & 32) and Les Artistes du Sacre-Coeur, as dubbed by their critical champion Wilhelm Uhde in tribute to their purity of expression. Donghi was a trained artist, however, having studied in Venice, Florence and Rome, during and after the First World War, and during the 1920s, he was a significant proponent of the Magical Realist movement, alongside Felice Casorati (see lots 81, 82 & 83).

Paesaggio Torino di Sangro was exhibited at the 1950 Venice Biennale, at a seminal moment on the brink of a new era, where his work appeared alongside the likes of Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. This work is typical of his mature style, focussing on the landscape in pared back, generalised forms but with careful, intimate detail that creates an optimistic, almost paradisiacal, evocation of the rural landscape.