RODA (Leonardo). The Giant's Needle. 1912. Watercolour and gouache highlights, 33 x 25 cm, framed. View of the Dent du Géant, with a group of mountaineers in the Vallée Blanche in the foreground, signed and dated lower right. Leonardo Roda (Raconigi, 1868 - Turin, 1933) was an Italian painter. He was the son of a gardener to King Charles Albert. Trained as a painter by Marco Calderini, he became one of Turin's most renowned painters. An avid mountain painter, he painted many landscapes of the Aosta Valley and Piedmont, including beautiful views of the Matterhorn. An exhibition was devoted to him in 2016 at the Castelllo Gamba in Châtillon (Aosta Valley).