Fiori

Details

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)
Fiori
signed and dated 'Morandi 1943' (lower right)
oil on canvas
10 x 12 in. (25.5 x 30.5 cm.)
Painted in 1943

Provenance

Private collection, Italy, by whom acquired directly from the artist circa 1943, and thence by descent; sale, Christie's, London, 15 October 2007, lot 212.
Private collection, by whom acquired at the above sale.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2016.

Literature

M. Luzi, F. Loi & J.-M. Folon, Tre poeti per Morandi, Bologna, 1996, pp. 8-9 (illustrated on the cover).
M. Pasquali, Giorgio Morandi: catalogo generale, opere catalogate tra il 1985 e il 2016, Pistoia, 2016, no. 1943/2, p. 94 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Siena, Palazzo Pubblico, Magazzini del Sale, Morandi: I fiori, November 1990 - January 1991, no. 10, p. 82 (illustrated p. 34).
Ischia, Castello Aragonese, Giorgio Morandi e la luce del Mediterraneo, January - September 1996, p. 22 (illustrated p. 23).
Brescia, Palazzo Martinengo, Giorgio Morandi: Oggetti e stati d'animo, December 1996 - February 1997, no. VIII, 2, p. 85 (illustrated).
Tokyo, Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Giorgio Morandi: Flowers and Landscape, October - November 1998, no. 28 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Sagamihara-City, Light and Greenery Art Museum, December 1998 - February 1999.
Bologna, Museo Morandi (on loan, 1998-2007).
Bologna, Museo Morandi, Incontri al Museo Morandi: Opere in deposito per il 2000, January 2000, p. 33 (illustrated).
Nuoro, Museo d'Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Giorgio Morandi: I Fiori, May - July 2001, no. 7, p. 56 (illustrated p. 31).

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

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Lot Essay

Painted in 1943, Fiori is an intimate and absorbing work, showing one of Morandi's most-favoured themes, flowers. In the summer of that year, to escape the war, Morandi found shelter in the village of Grizzana, on the outskirts of Bologna, the city he was born and lived in, which was being devastated by brutal air raids. During those troubled and uncertain months, he created some of his most inspired and moving paintings, such as the present work.

Among Morandi’s most cherished subjects, flowers have always been a symbol of fragility. In the present work, besides suggesting the delicacy of human condition, they also convey a feeling of hope. The fine corollae, tightly arranged one next to the other, and immersed in a soft, warm light, become a poetic emblem of unity. Whereas in many of Morandi’s paintings emptiness dominates the often rarefied composition, in the present work everything is condesed on a small surface, rich of meaning and emotions. With Fiori, Morandi creates a contained yet powerful image to hold on to, during those troubled times.

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