Lot 20: Giovanni Battista Torriglia (Italian, 1858-1937) The seesaw 28 3/8 x 43 1/4in (73 x 110cm)

Giovanni Battista Torriglia (Italian, 1858-1937)
The seesaw
signed 'G.B. Torriglia' (lower right)
oil on canvas
28 3/8 x 43 1/4in (73 x 110cm)
Footnotes

Provenance
Acquired in Florence, 1922, by the great grandparents of the current owner.

Known mainly as a genre painter, Torriglia began his artistic career by decorating churches in the Italian countryside. After settling in Tuscany in 1901, he turned his focus to quaint scenes of family life, creating elaborate compositions with multiple figures, often bearing a deeper meaning than what was immediately apparent. Like his contemporaries Gaetano Chierici and Eugenio Zampighi, he infused his works with the typical Italian love for the family that was not dependent on material wealth. At the same time, a nostalgic sense of the passage of time is apparent in the depiction of multiple generations.

An almost identical composition was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 3 June 2009, lot 152.