Mario Cavaglieri (Rovigo 1887-Peyloubère 1969) GIULIETTA IN SELVA DI VALSUGANA oil on cardboard, 44.5x65.5 cm signed and dated '914' lower right GIULIETTA IN SELVA DI VALSUGANA oil on cardboard, 44.5x65.5 cm signed and dated '914' lower right Provenance Zaniboni Collection, Padua Fontana Collection, Padua Menghelli Gallery, Florence Private collection, Voghera Exhibitions Unpublished Works by Mario Cavaglieri, Florence, Galleria Menghelli, March-April 1979, no. 2 Venezia: gli anni di Ca' Pesaro 1908-1920, Venice, Museo Correr, Ala Napoleonica, 19 December 1987-28 February 1988, no. 5 (Juliet in Selva di Cadore) Legacy of Impressionism 1900-1945. La realtà interiore, Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 15 December 1994-28 February 1995), no. 76 (Juliet in Selva) Mario Cavaglieri, Rovigo, Palazzo Roverello, 11 February-1 July 2007, table 49 Mario Cavaglieri, Milan, Palazzo Reale, 13 July-11 November 2007, p. 15 Art in Transition, 1885-1930. Pittura italiana da alcune collezioni lombarde, Tortona, Pinacoteca della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona, 1 November 2008-15 March 2009, no. 32 Bibliography Venezia: gli anni di Ca' Pesaro 1908-1920, exhibition catalogue (Venice, Museo Correr, Ala Napoleonica, 19 December 1987-28 February 1988), Milan 1987, pp.133-134, n. 5 ripr. Legacy of Impressionism 1900-1945. La realtà interiore, exhibition catalogue (Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 15 December 1994-28 February 1995), Milan 1994, p. 139, n. 76 ripr. (Giulietta a Selva) V. Vareilles, Mario Cavaglieri (1887-1969) Catalogo ragionato dei dipinti, Turin 2006, vol.1, table 36, vol.II, p.97, n.411 (with bibliography) Mario Cavaglieri, exhibition catalogue (Rovigo, Palazzo Roverello, 11 February-1 July 2007), Turin 2007, p.82, table 49 Mario Cavaglieri, exhibition catalogue (Milan, Palazzo Reale, 13 July-11 November 2007), Turin 2007, p.62, table 15 S. Fugazza, A. Guarnaschelli and P. Nicholls (eds.), Arte in transizione, 1885-1930. Pittura italiana da alcune collezioni lombarde, exhibition catalogue (Tortona, Pinacoteca della Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona, 1 November 2008-15 March 2009), Milan 2008, pp. 80-81 no. 32 Mario Cavaglieri's pictorial material asserts itself in all its intensity in the marvellous interior presented in the catalogue. Through the three windows, placid but unstoppable, the light becomes a chromatic impasto and floods the white-walled room, synthetically defining its objects. In the simplicity of the mountain room, the small greyhound sleeps curled up on a pillow, a box of cigarettes is on the brown chest of drawers, while on the dressing table, the towel reveals the letters "CP", Pacifico Cavaglieri, Mario's father. In the centre of the composition stands Giulietta Catellini De Grossi, vehemently called 'Juliette', the absolute muse of the painter's art and life. She wears a fancy red and blue dress and a red ribbon in her hair, her head bowed and her eyes downcast, absorbed in reading the little book she holds in her hands. It is 1914, the 'Shining Years' (1913-1920) of Mario Cavaglieri. The name 'Brilliant Years' for this phase of Mario Cavaglieri's production, an expression approved by the interested party, to whom it was submitted in 1968, immediately seemed very convincing to me, due to the visual impact of the paintings of those years, the enlargement of the format of the canvases, the clamour of the critics and the pompous worldliness of that period in the painter's life. It was therefore a particularly fertile season for Cavaglieri, who flourished to the full on a personal, artistic and social level; but also a favourable time that saw his participation in major exhibitions such as the Venetian exhibitions at Ca' Pesaro, the National Fine Arts Exhibition at the Permanente in Milan, the International Art Exhibitions of the 'Secessione' in Rome and above all the Venice Biennale. Years that began in 1913, still amidst many contrasts, when he exhibited for the first time at the Venetian exhibition at Ca' Pesaro the large canvas in which he declared to the world his predilection for Juliet as the model for his art, that contained a parenthesis of separation from his beloved (from 1915) and that ended in 1920, when Mario finally found his woman in Piacenza. These seven years marked by triumph constitute the moment of full maturity for Mario. Italy still seemed unaware of the turmoil that would shake Europe a few years later and 26-year-old Cavaglieri intensified his happy professional activity to the utmost. In 1913, the year that we have defined as the 'hinge' between the two phases, the young Mario, who lived as a privileged man, achieved certain goals that marked a new cycle in his personal and artistic journey: obtaining a driving licence, buying his first car, a more affluent lifestyle in Rome (during his stays in the capital he even set up an atelier there) and above all the exhibition mentioned above. Juliet's presence at his side and the desire to broaden his social circle gave new lifeblood to the artist's life; many upper-class circles now opened up to the young dandy, providing the painter with the stimulus for a more flamboyant style and more complex compositions. This was the phase in which his professional life took on real depth: exhibitions multiplied and admission to major national exhibitions reinforced in him 'the decision to be a painter and only a painter'. Parallel to Futurism, which was vigorously asserting itself in those years, he followed his own path, without allowing himself to be tempted by an experience for which he continued to declare a tenacious aversion, both out of an antithetical conception of art and out of a proud desire for independence; similarly, the few friends belonging to the artistic milieu did not seem to have any influence on his painting. V. Vareilles 2006, p. 48