National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Autumn
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History

Overview

A leading exponent of the rococo school that flourished in Rome during the first half of the eighteenth century, Corrado Giaquinto—a kind of "Italian Boucher"—was trained in Naples. The baroque style that Giaquinto formed there took on a lighter tone after he moved to Rome in 1727, where he specialized in painting altarpieces and large decorative ensembles. In Rome his style also became more classicizing, and the kind of elegant sophistication that marks Giaquinto's mature works soon established his international reputation. Accordingly, he was invited to become court painter to King Ferdinand VI in Madrid, where he remained until returning to Italy in 1762 four years before his death. In Madrid Giaquinto painted decorative cycles glorifying the Spanish monarchy that are a direct precedent for those of his successor, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (whose 1762 Wealth and Benefits of the Spanish Monarchy is in the Gallery's collection).

Autumn represents the god Bacchus and other mythological figures lounging in a lush landscape. Dating from the artist's mature period, the 1740s, this work is in almost perfect condition. The painting forms part of a series of four allegories of the seasons: Winter also belongs to the Gallery's Italian baroque collection, while the canvases representing spring and summer are known today only through photographs. Both Gallery paintings, particularly Autumn, with its air of overripe, languid elegance, are superb examples of Giaquinto's art.

Inscription

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Provenance

Comte d'Arthois, Paris.[1] (Metropolitan Galleries, New York), in 1931-1932.[2] (Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries, New York), in 1938.[3] (Dr. Siegfried F. Aram, New York), in 1941.[4] Purchased by the Rizik family, Washington, D.C.;[5] gift 2001 to NGA.

[1] According to the 1941 exhibition catalogue (see note 4), the set of four paintings by Giaquinto, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, was formerly in this collection.

[2] Metropolitan Galleries lent the four paintings to a 1931 exhibition in Birmingham, Alabama, and included the paintings in a 1932 exhibition in their own galleries.

[3] Acquavella Galleries lent the four paintings to a 1938 exhibition in Memphis.

[4] This dealer was Dr. Siegfried F. Aram, a German lawyer-turned-art collector and dealer, who left Nazi Germany and had a gallery on 57th Street in New York until the early 1950s (see his letter of 3 June 1955 to Dr. Edgar P. Richardson, Archives of American Art, Edgar Preston Richardson Papers, Box 1: Special Correspondence A-B, Folder: Aram, Siegfried; copy in NGA curatorial files). Aram lent the four paintings to an exhibition in San Francisco in 1941.

[5] All four paintings were purchased from a New York dealer, probably Aram, by Philip Rizik's father, who died in 1953, at which time the paintings passed with the elder Rizik's estate to his widow. When she died in 1978, her estate passed in equal shares to the Rizik's seven children. Philip, Jacqueline, and Maxine Rizik chose by mutual agreement joint ownership of the set of Qiaquinto paintings.

Exhibition History

1931
Exhibition of Italian Art, Birmingham Public Library, Alabama, 1931.
1932
Exhibition of Italian Paintings of the 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries, Metropolitan Galleries, New York, 1932.
1938
Cotton Festival, New Orleans, 1938.
1938
Fourth Fine Arts Exhibition, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, 1938, no. 15.
1940
San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, 1940.
1941
Exhibition of Italian Baroque Painting, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1941, no. 50, repro.

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