CARLO STRATTA Turin, 1852 - 1936 Girl playing with doves Signed C Stratta bottom left Oil on canvas, 144X100.5 cm Provenance: Genoa, private collection Carlo Stratta was an artist capable of blending classical and modern themes, producing works that express sensuality and beauty, as depicted in our canvas in which a young woman, realistically and sensually rendered, plays with doves. Stratta was born in a period of artistic fervour and began his training in 1869 at the Accademia Albertina in Turin under the guidance of Antonio Fontanesi, a well-known landscape painter and innovator of Italian art. Fontanesi advised Stratta to devote himself to the figure, steering him towards an artistic career that would lead him to intensively explore the representation of the human figure. After his studies, Stratta perfected his technique in Paris, under the influence of Thomas Couture, a master realist who would train many artists of his time. During his stay in Villiers-le-Bel, the Turinese painter absorbed the artistic dynamism of the French capital and developed a style in which the realism of the figure blended with an appealing elegance. His debut at the prestigious Paris Salon in 1879 marked the beginning of his international career. However, his return to Turin in 1884 would see him involved in important commissions, such as the wall decorations for Palazzo Cova and his participation in the Promotrice with a large painting of a female nude. His next work, Arachne, painted in 1893 and now housed in the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna in Turin, is considered his most iconic work and representative of how Stratta anticipated elements of art nouveau with a symbolist and modernist sensibility. In addition to mythological and sensual subjects, he also tackled religious and historical themes, collaborating with artists such as Luigi Pollonera and producing decorations for the Turin Exhibition of Sacred Art, as well as the work for the church of San Genesio above Chivasso, which testifies to his versatility.