Impressionist & Modern Art : Chirico the Landscapist: Two Previously Unseen Woodland Scenes

Upcoming Sale
Impressionist & Modern Art
Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at 2:30 PM

Chirico the Landscapist: Two Previously Unseen Woodland Scenes

Among the highlights of the upcoming Impressionist & Modern Art sale on March 19 are two recently authenticated paintings by the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico in Rome.

These works belong to a small corpus of natural landscapes painted by Giorgio de Chirico shortly before 1935. Acquired directly from the artist by a wealthy Milanese collector—who also commissioned portraits of his relatives, still in the family's possession—these woodland scenes closely echo Paesaggio delle Cascine (1934), a painting of the same format preserved at the Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico in Rome (inv. 195).

In his landscapes of the 1930s, De Chirico pays a distinct homage to the serene depictions of nature by Nicolas Poussin. Yet, as noted by Bernardo Marziani, the curvature of the tree branches in his woodland series imbues the compositions with "a vague sense of apparition, a final trace of the metaphysical period" ("un vago carattere di apparizione, ultima traccia del periodo metafisico").

This is particularly evident in his Juan-les-Pins (1930, private collection), a canvas depicting a forest corner where towering, gnarled tree trunks extend their extraordinarily long branches beyond the painting’s boundaries.

However, our compositions exude a less ominous atmosphere. The inscriptions in Ancient Greek and Latin, written by De Chirico on the reverse of the canvases, reflect his belief in nature’s inspirational power—an idea rooted in the writings of Petrarch.

Thus, his landscapes become manifestations of an idealized, cultivated nature—a kind of Garden of Eden or a Metaphysical Hesperides of the 20th century.

Impressionist & Modern Art
Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Upcoming Sales in Preparation
April 23 & June 18, 2025

For more information or to include a lot in our upcoming sales, contact :
Pierre-Alban Vinquant
+33 (0)1 47 45 08 20 - vinquant@aguttes.com