A peasant family

Details

GASPARE TRAVERSI (NAPLES 1722-1770 ROME)
A peasant family
oil on canvas, unframed
32 1/2 x 38 1/2 in. (82.5 x 97.8 cm.)

Provenance

Mrs. Basil Feilding, Beckley Park, Oxford; (†), Christie's, London, 13 December 1991, lot 94, where acquired by the present owner.

Literature

N. Spinosa, Gaspare Traversi: Napolitani del 700 tra miseria e nobilità, Naples, 2003, pp. 229, 255, no. R30, illustrated.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve. On occasion, Christie's has a direct financial interest in the outcome of the sale of certain lots consigned for sale. This will usually be where it has guaranteed to the Seller that whatever the outcome of the auction, the Seller will receive a minimum sale price for the work. This is known as a minimum price guarantee. Where Christie's has provided a Minimum Price Guarantee it is at risk of making a loss, which can be significant, if the lot fails to sell. Christie's therefore sometimes chooses to share that risk with a third party. In such cases the third party agrees prior to the auction to place an irrevocable written bid on the lot. The third party is therefore committed to bidding on the lot and, even if there are no other bids, buying the lot at the level of the written bid unless there are any higher bids. In doing so, the third party takes on all or part of the risk of the lot not being sold. If the lot is not sold, the third party may incur a loss. The third party will be remunerated in exchange for accepting this risk based on a fixed fee if the third party is the successful bidder or on the final hammer price in the event that the third party is not the successful bidder. The third party may also bid for the lot above the written bid. Where it does so, and is the successful bidder, the fixed fee for taking on the guarantee risk may be netted against the final purchase price.

Third party guarantors are required by us to disclose to anyone they are advising their financial interest in any lots they are guaranteeing. However, for the avoidance of any doubt, if you are advised by or bidding through an agent on a lot identified as being subject to a third party guarantee you should always ask your agent to confirm whether or not he or she has a financial interest in relation to the lot.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Jonquil O’Reilly Vice President, Specialist, Head of Sale

JOReilly@christies.com +1 212 636 2478

Lot Essay

The Neapolitan painter, Gaspare Traversi is best known for his animated genre scenes, often depicting the middle classes. These works, which display Traversi’s highly individual realism and uncompromisingly incisive ability to render character, secured the artist’s position as one of the most important painters of settecento Naples. While his paintings of the middle classes were often bawdy, Traversi was compassionate when turning his attention to society’s less fortunate as we see here, with the young peasant woman, child and elderly man represented with quiet grace and dignity. This canvas can be compared with the artist's Three Ages of Man in a private collection (loc. cit., no. R.31) which similarly shows three peasant figures seated on the ground, this time with an elderly woman framing the composition at right and the baby seated in the lap of a young woman.

Little of the artist’s early life and training has been firmly established, but his early works unquestionably reveal the influence of Francesco Solimena, the dominant Neapolitan painter of the period, and it seems probable that he trained with Francesco de Mura, Solimena’s leading pupil. From 1752, Traversi resided alternately in Rome and in Naples. His study of the works of earlier painters from both cities was clearly influential, and the dramatic gestures and expressive characterization of the figures in his impressive series of six canvases painted for the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, Rome, show the distinct influence of both Ribera and Caravaggio. These works quickly established Traversi as a significant artistic figure, and he soon attracted the patronage of Raffaello Rossi da Lugagnano (d. 1759), a prominent Franciscan friar, who commissioned a series of five paintings of the Passion for the convent at Castell’Arquato in 1753 (Gallerie Nazionale, Parma), fourteen depicting the Stations of the Cross for the Chiesa di San Rocco in Borgotaro (in situ) and a monumental Pentecost in 1757 for the Chiesa di San Pietro d’Alcantara in Parma (in situ). By the mid-1750s, however, Traversi turned increasingly away from religious commissions, in order to focus his attentions on genre painting.

More from Remastered: Old Masters from the Collection of J.E. Safra - Selling Without Reserve

View All