Angelo Barabino

Angelo Barabino quotations

Angelo Barabino’s divisionist works in oil on canvas or panel start at around £2,800 and reach £9,500 for the smaller formats. Larger landscapes are valued between £11,000 and £24,000, depending on the subject and the quality of the painting.

The most important works in terms of symbolist intensity and historical value can reach much higher figures, ranging from €28,000 to €48,000, with the possibility of exceeding these thresholds in the most exceptional cases.

These are indicative estimates: each valuation depends on the period, size, subject, technique and state of preservation. For a free and detailed estimate of your work by Angelo Barabino, please contact us.

Biography

Angelo Barabino (Tortona, 1883 – Milan, 1950) was born into a family of Ligurian origin and showed an early interest in drawing. In 1900, he moved to Milan to study at the Brera Academy, where he attended courses taught by Giuseppe Mentessi and Camillo Rapetti. At the same time, he joined the studio of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, with whom he also collaborated on several works.

Divisionist painting

After the death of his master in 1907, Barabino continued to develop the Divisionist technique, with a style of painting based on dense chromatic textures and a strong focus on social issues. He had already presented the lost work I miei morti (My Dead) at the Florentine Promotrice in 1906, while in 1910 he exhibited the painting Rapina (Robbery) at Brera, a denunciation of violence against women working in the fields. Although criticised, this painting aroused the enthusiasm of Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, who became a staunch supporter.

Between the Great War and the renewal of the 1920s

In 1914, Barabino held a solo exhibition in Alessandria, where he presented works such as L’annegato (The Drowned Man), Il figlio (The Son) and Pomeriggio di primavera (Spring Afternoon): works in which Divisionism becomes vibrant, emotional and lyrical, linked to the intense and spiritual light of Piedmontese nature. At the outbreak of the First World War, he was enlisted, but his poor health forced him to return home and undergo a long period of inactivity.

Returning to Tortona, he slowly resumed painting in the 1920s, devoting himself mainly to landscapes. The influence of the Novecento movement led him to move beyond the Divisionist style: his surfaces became larger and his colours more uniform. Alongside this research, he created decorative cycles for churches and palaces in Liguria and Piedmont, demonstrating a growing interest in monumentality.

A solitary artist between Italy and Venezuela

With the advent of Fascism, Barabino maintained a reserved and critical attitude, preferring to distance himself from large official exhibitions. He devoted himself mainly to the landscapes of Tortona and the Pre-Alps of the Val Sangone, often living in financial difficulty.

In 1929, he accepted an invitation from the Turin entrepreneur Roversi to move to Venezuela, where he remained until 1931, exhibiting in Caracas at the Club Venezuela and the Circolo della Fratellanza Italica. Here he worked mainly as a portrait painter and, before returning to Italy, visited several European capitals to further his study of the old masters.

Back in Tortona, he participated only occasionally in exhibitions, such as the Sindacale torinese in 1933 with Viale and Carriole, works that oscillate between residual divisionism and a new 20th-century sensibility.

In his later years, he continued to paint away from the spotlight until his death in Milan in 1950.

Elena Lago