Antique Impressionist Oil Painting On Canvas Ettore Cumbo Borgia Late 19th Century (

Antique Impressionist Oil Painting On Canvas Ettore Cumbo Borgia Late 19th Century ("
Rare oil painting on canvas depicting a sunset, Florentine impressionist period -
Author Ettore Cumbo Borgia (Messina 1833- Florence 1899)
signed on the back of the frame - frame size 56 x 46 cm oil 30x20

CUMBO, Ettore

Son of Diego and Alcmena Borgia, he was born in Messina in 1833. Roman by adoption - since childhood he lived in Rome with his mother (De Gubernatis) -, he studied with excellent results at the Sapienza College in Perugia and, after completing his studies in 1850, he became interested in mathematical disciplines, with particular attention to architecture and engineering. In 1857 he abandoned his engineering studies to devote himself to painting, choosing the genre of landscape, in which his teacher was Roman A. Castelli, an artist of academic-romantic training with realist accents and a moderately successful landscape painter in those decades.

Already a patriot as a teenager, C. was unable to participate in the Second War of Independence (1859) due to a deforming arthritis that had struck him a few years earlier. But due to his intense activity as a conspirator against the papal government, he was exiled to Florence, where he settled permanently, carrying out his activity as a painter with greater commitment. His contacts with the lively Florentine artistic milieu seem to have been rare and sporadic. It is known that he became friends with S. Ussi, N. Barabino, V. Matteo Corcos (Accascina, 1939, p. 118), but his career is completely disconnected from the theoretical debate and the new artistic trends of the post-unification years.
From around 1870, C. published his paintings - Alpine subjects, seascapes, Florentine views, still lifes - which established himself as a genre painter. He also participated in numerous exhibitions: the international exhibition in London in 1874, the regional horticultural exhibitions in Palermo in 1886 and 1887 (gaining recognition for his highly sought-after still lifes) and the national exhibition in Palermo in 1891-92 (silver medal for the painting depicting a landscape on the Apennines, now in the collection of the Banco di Sicilia).

In 1893 he became a member of the Academy of S. Luca, as a "scholar of merit" (Rome, Arch. dell'Accademia di S. Luca

C. died in Florence on January 16, 1899. In 1910, a retrospective of his works was organized in Florence.

A little-known artist, C. is a personality that is difficult to define critically both because of the limited biographical information and the almost total dispersion of his works. Absent from Italian public collections, knowledge of his artistic production has been entrusted above all to a good number of his paintings preserved in Florence, partly at his heirs' (Corner of Florence, Corner of the Loggia dei Piscina, Piazza del Mercato Vecchio, Stormy Sea, Ideal Landscape, Landscape) and partly in the Foligno house (Still Life, Landscape, Flowers, Little Marina, Sky and Sea, Grapes, Roses, Large Landscape), mentioned in Accascina (1936 and 1939), but all now disappeared. From the information reported by biographers, it is also clear that many of C.'s paintings have already been found since the end of the century. XIX in private English and German collections. His only work preserved in Sicily is the Landscape on the Apennines (oil on canvas, 103×164 cm; signed lower right) from the collections of the Banco di Sicilia, awarded at the National Exhibition in Palermo in 1891-92 (see a long description in Lo Forte Randi, 1892): a vast mountain landscape, characterized by a calligraphic realism and emphasizing the rocks in the foreground, brightened by small touches of ochre, which stand out against a background of livid and misty tones.

In a stormy Marina, once belonging to the Modern Gallery of Florence, probably to be identified with the ancient Pisani Gallery, now unavailable and known only through an abandoned photo by Brogi, one notices instead the fluid and frayed brush and the extreme finesse of the execution. Far from the Sicilian schools of painting (after all, C.'s "Sicilianness" is only a personal fact) and with only a few points of contact with the great Neapolitan landscape tradition, his calm and applied style appears frozen in a conventional figure, undoubtedly rich in decorative taste, which nevertheless found favor with the Italian and especially foreign petty bourgeoisie. Unfortunately, also missing are the small paintings depicting some corners of Florence, with an almost impressionist flavor, and the Marines brought together by Accascina (1936) with the results of Ciardi and Moses Bianchi, perhaps among the best things of Cumbo. From the few surviving data, C. appears to be a painter of landscapes and still lifes, a good draftsman and a quality colorist.

Condition report:

Very good condition

Additional dimensions information:

frame size 56 x 46 cm oil 30x20