GIUSEPPE MASCARINI
(Bologna 1877 - Milan 1954)

"Portrait of a Girl"
Oil painting on tablet, 45x31 cm from 1912
Signed lower left

Published in "Giuseppe Mascarini 1887-1954. A palette between two centuries" Edition Skira 2016 - page 114 tav.134

Bibliography: Critical Notes by C. Carrà, La Mostra Della Permanente in "L'Ambrosiano", 12 \ 12 \ 1936

He always lived and worked in Milan. He studied at the Brera Academy. Gifted for drawing and painting, he won prizes in 1896 and 1897 when he took part in the Brera exhibitions for the first time.
In 1900 the Academy nominated him "Honorary Member" and later he was called to be part of the permanent painting commission. The first years of the century are spent in Paris where he studies the painting of the great masters of the past and follows the new pictorial trends that advance in the climate of general renewal. Influences of themes such as symbolism and divisionism can be found in his paintings from the first decades of the 20th century. The large canvases "The dream" 1909, "The visitor" 1909, "Ancient ballad" 1916 and the great alpine landscapes where the tripartition of horizons, divisionism, the skies leading towards infinity, the visual perception, belong to this period. reminiscent of Puvis Chevannes, by Hodler and Segantini.
Mascarini loves the mountains and during the summer stays the beautiful Val Bregaglia is the setting for many landscapes he represents. But there is not only the landscape painting for Mascarini but also that of the figure because nature and humanity are two equally alive terms in him, both generators of inspiration.
In his figure paintings he prefers to observe rather than interpret arbitrarily, to keep himself as close as possible to the subject rather than load it with extreme meanings. His brushstrokes, the strength of the drawing and the warmth always suggest a vision of serene and familiar calm, a warm unity of tone, a measure, a contained and spontaneous impetus.
He has exhibited at the Venice International Biennials since 1900. He participates in the Rome Quadrennial, the Turin International, all the social exhibitions of the "Permanente" in Milan, the annual Brera, the Fine Arts Exibition of San Francisco in 1915. Organizes exhibitions personal exhibitions in Busto Arsizio in 1920, at Bottega di Poesia in Milan in 1926, at the Galleria Scopinich in Milan in 1931. In 1942 he organized another one-man show at the “Permanente”. Postwar he resumes exhibiting at the Venice Biennials and group exhibitions in the Milan area.