The Gleaner (1914 ca.)

Inscriptions: Signed lower right: “COROMALDI”. On the reverse, cartouche referable to the ‘International Panama-Pacific Exhibition’, 1915.

Exhibition: International Panama-Pacific Exhibition, San Francisco, 1915 (Gold Medal winner).

Bibliography: International Panama-Pacific Exhibition: Italian Fine Art Section, Rome, 1915, p. 21 (ripr. tav. fuori testo); R. Giorgio, Corrispondenze e notizie: da San Francisco, in “Patria e Colonie”, 1915, a. IV, sem. II, p. 72; F. Vagnetti, Artisti contemporanei: Umberto Coromaldi, in “Emporium”, 1918, vol. XLVII, n. 280, p. 174, repro p. 175.

Last shown to the public in 1915, the year in which it was exhibited at the “Panama-Pacific” International Exhibition in San Francisco, this finally rediscovered painting is considered one of the masterpieces of the Roman painter Umberto Coromaldi. The work, although often cited in the various biographical profiles of the artist, was only known until now thanks to a black and white photographic reproduction published in a long article by Fausto Vagnetti in the “Emporium” magazine in 1918, a fundamental contribution to understanding the role of Coromaldi in the artistic panorama of his time. The critic mentioned it as being wholly representative of the Roman painter’s style, characterised by the fitting encounter of the themes of nineteenth-century realism and an elegant, modern pictorial sensitivity.

The Spigolatrice belongs to a corpus of paintings created by Coromaldi in Anticoli Corrado, an ancient village in the Aniene valley not far from Rome. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this was a favourite destination for hundreds of artists from all over the world, attracted by the peculiar beauty of its models, in whose somatic features coexisted the characteristics of their Nordic and Saracen ancestors. Peasants and housewives of all ages posed for the artists with extraordinary ease, both in the nude and in scenes of daily life wearing traditional clothes, the latter particularly congenial to Coromaldi. The light-haired model, whose identity is unknown, is immortalised by the artist while gleaning, her gaze lost towards an undefined point. In framing the figure, enveloped in a warm afternoon light captured rigorously en plein air, Coromaldi adopted a slightly overhead perspective, placing the horizon almost at the edge of the canvas. The vanishing point thereby directs the gaze towards the upper part of the painting, where we can see a sketch of two figures of farmers at rest with their flock. The progression of the brushstrokes in the rendering of the field contributes to the perspective illusion, large and full-bodied in the foreground, then increasingly minute as they thin out towards the horizon.

From a stylistic point of view, the piece effectively documents the Coromaldi’s technical ability, which was appreciated by the critics of the day for the agility of his pictorial work. In tracing his biographical profile, Vagnetti recalled that his style was indebted to the influence of «contemporary masters», citing, in particular, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn and Ettore Tito[1]. The study of the painting of these artists, known above all thanks to the Venice biennials, to which he participated, exhibiting continuously from 1903 to 1924[2], responded to a desire for comparison with international styles that Coromaldi shared with certain painters of his generation, such as, to mention the more important, Camillo Innocenti and Arturo Noci. At the time this painting was created, these artists had joined the the ranks of the “Secessione”, an association founded in Rome in 1912 with the aim of freeing itself from the rhetoric of official art and, at the same time, seeking a connection with innovations from abroad. Their international approach to painting was the key to their success outside Italy, as evidenced, in the case of Coromaldi, by the success achieved at the San Francisco exhibition in 1915, where the Spigolatrice, together with the since lost Ritorno dai campi, was awarded the gold medal. The critics proved to be particularly struck by the poetic inspiration of the scene and by the emotional accent instilled in the portrait of the little girl: «his gleaner», wrote Renato Giorgio, for example, «[…] is a poem of grace and rural radiance»[3].

Although he always preferred rural subjects, studied from life in his frequent stays in the countryside away from the chaos of the city[4], the artist also successfully contended with elegant portraiture and scenes of domestic intimacy, particularly in vogue in the capital in the first two decades of the twentieth century. His singular capacity for psychological introspection appreciable in the Spigolatrice is also found in works such as Vanitosa (1901, Rome, National Gallery of Modern Art), La donna e lo specchio (1903, Udine, Museo Civico Casa Cavazzini), La mia famiglia (1920, Rome, Academy of Fine Arts) and the Ritratto di Pan Yuliang from 1928, which recently became part of the collections at the Galleria degli Uffizi.

Manuel Carrera

[1] F. Vagnetti, Artisti contemporanei: Umberto Coromaldi, in “Emporium”, 1918, vol. XLVII, no. 280, p. 172: «[…] he travelled around Italy and abroad, lived and studied for a long time in Venice. He lovingly analysed the contemporary masters who were closest to his temperament; he loved Sargent, Zorn, Tito; he always had great admiration for Antonio Mancini».

[2] The artist participated in all the editions held in the period in question, with the exception of the one held in 1909.

[3] R. Giorgio, Corrispondenze e notizie: da San Francisco, in “Patria e Colonie”, 1915, a. IV, sem. II, p. 72.

[4] Vagnetti, cit., p. 174: «Once the grant was finished, he focussed on rural scenes of Roman or Ciociaria settings, in which the breadth of the vision, the correctness of the ratios, are worthily matched by the exact perception of form in its constructive simplicity and a broad sensation of the clarity provided by the open air. Staying for some time in the countryside, among the pure harmonies of a primitive life, he contributed to making Umberto Coromaldi solitary. His serene temperament, suffused with faint melancholy, found its environment in the solemnity of the Roman countryside or in the mountains of Cimino and Ciociaria; and, during those prolonged stays, far from the artificial world of the city, he loved to represent the life that men and animals lived together».