Oreste Garaccioni (1881-?) - Ritratto femminile

Biography Born in the town of Sassi in Turin, he pursued classical and legal studies (in 1907 he is listed at the University of Turin), and simultaneously learned painting from Giuseppe Cavalla, among the most authoritative Piedmontese portraitists of the time. In 1901 he was admitted to the infantry school for military service. In 1908 he became a master. In 1910 he first exhibited at the Promotrice Genovese the painting Reflection. Particularly eclectic, he tackled various techniques and subjects, including nudes, landscapes, still lifes, but he was especially a portrait painter. Among the latter are remembered the portraits of Contessa Taylor Damna, Contessa Cisa Varnante born Ravanasco, Signora Matrena Orlof, Contessa Maria Petrowna, and Prince Pajarschi. In 1920 he appears to have a two-story painting studio at 6 Via Luigi Ornato in Turin, for which he requested an intervention estimate from engineer Carlo Mario Zuccarelli, in the style of those already in use by painters Morgari and Giacomo Grosso. On May 6, 1924, the discipline council of the Turin provveditorato dismissed him from his position as master (the reasons at the time could have been varied, from simple unavailability, to a later illness, to actual deficiencies), but he appealed to the ministerial commission and the sanction was changed to a simple three-month suspension. His works are exhibited in Italy, France, and the United States. Among his most recurring subjects is that of a girl with raven-black hair, semi-naked, sensually lying on a bed and turned toward the painter with a seductive and hypnotic expression. The subject has appeared in many paintings of various sizes, and is known by several names (Nude of a reclining woman, Lying nude, The cigarette, Reclined female nude). Another of his paintings, the Portrait of Mario Buffoni, is kept in the collection of the Istituto dei Ciechi in Milan.

Estimate:£593.77

View all items fromCatawikiorMiscellaneous