Giuseppe Buscaglione

Giuseppe Buscaglione was born in Ariano Irpino in 1868, into a family of Piedmontese origin. On his return to Turin, he trained under Lorenzo Delleani, becoming one of his favourite pupils. Specialising from the outset in landscape painting, he inherited from his master a naturalistic approach interwoven with evocative lyrical notes, in which light plays a fundamental role, together with the skilful and poetic modulation of atmospheric variations.

The Piedmont and Ligurian landscape: a lyrical and luminous naturalism

Rural and marine views rendered with extraordinary ease of execution and emotional involvement characterise the entire production of Giuseppe Buscaglione, who for several years did not receive the attention of the critics because he was often confused with his master Delleani. He made his debut at the Promotrice in Turin in 1888 with On the Ligurian Coast at the age of twenty. In 1890 he presented Noon and the following year Hot Hours. Both paintings have a temporal notation in the title, a characteristic feature of the painter’s poetics, who, like Delleani, paid particular attention to the time of day and the cycle of the seasons. The backs of his landscapes often bear small temporal and topographical annotations, demonstrating a keen interest in the variations of light at different times of day and the changing of the months.

The elegiac intonation and the temporal notations, between sea and mountains

This particularity brings Giuseppe Buscaglione’s work considerably closer not only to Delleani, but also to other Piedmontese landscape painters such as Antonio Fontanesi and the exponents of the Rivara School. The en plein air painting and that particular elegiac intent characterise all his production, which appeared not only at the Promotrici in Turin, but also at the most important national exhibitions.

He sent Landscape and Marina to the 1892 Palermo exhibition and On the Hill to the 1893 Rome exhibition. In the same year he exhibited at the Genoa Promotrice with Mountain coolness, Little village in Piedmont and The 8^th of September 1892. In 1896 he took part in the Florence Art and Flower Festival with March clouds, On the hills and Plain near the Po. The following year marked his debut at the Venice Biennale with the evocative painting Night Camp. He returned in 1901 with one of his most important works, The Silence. Giuseppe Buscaglione’s most significant canvases include November Night on the Po, from the 1898 Turin National Exhibition, Evening Poem, which appeared at the 1899 Turin Exhibition, Mystic Hour, Snowfall and Dawn, also exhibited in Turin in 1900.

Elena Lago