LOT DETAILS

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Measurements:

16.73 in. (42.50 cm.) (height) by 26.57 in. (67.50 cm.) (width)

Markings:

Signed and dated 'Morbelli. 1915.' at l.l.

Exhibited:

Milan, Bottega di Poesia, Esposizione retrospettiva dell'opera di Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati, Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Angelo Morbelli, 1922, no. 77.The present lot is one of four known oils that Morbelli produced between 1915 and 1917, using the motifs of the abandoned table, the telegram and the terrace. as part of a retrospective exhibition of the Divisionist Painters held in Milan in 1922, this work has remained in a private South American collection since that time.Various pencil studies for this series can be found in Morbelli's sketchbooks, and Morbelli re-visited the motif in 1917. A larger version of Il telegramma was at the Societ�� per le Belle Arti ed Esposizione Permanente in Milan, and entered the collection of the Banca Italiana di Sconto; here, the terrace now overlooks the sparkling blue waters of a lake, the depth of the landscape serving to further 'make the drama simple and terrible'.²¹ Exhibition catalogue, Angelo Morbelli, 3 April-16 May, 1982, Palazzo Cuttica-Alessandria, pp. 172-173. ,² G. Marangoni, Nature and Art, XXVII, 1917, Vol. I, December, pp. 5-10, 'Art in War Time, Monument Protection and Autumn Exhibition at Permanente in Milan'.,³ Perseverance, no. 278, October 7, 1917, 'Permanent I'.,⁴ This version was at the Palazzo Cuttica- Alessandria in 1982, no. 60 (illustrated in colour in the exhibition catalogue, p. 151, and also illustrated in Aurura Scotti, Angelo Morbelli, Soncino, 1991, p.106.,⁵ Aurura Scotti, Angelo Morbelli, Soncino, 1991, p. 106

Literature:

Milan, Esposizione retrospettiva dell'opera di Giovanni Segantini, Gaetano Previati, Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, Angelo Morbelli, exhibition catalogue, 1922, p. 29

Provenance:

Private collection, South America, by the early 1920s