Lot 121: Giuseppe Grandi Italian, (Ganna 1843 - 1891) , Beethoven Giovinetto (Young Beethoven) bronze, dark brown patina

entitled: BEETHOVEN, inscribed: Fonderia Barzani Milano bronze, dark brown patina

measurements note 73.5cm., 29in.

Guiseppe Grandi was one of the most important Italian sculptors of the second half of the the 19υth century. He was also a painter and printmaker, but it was in sculpture where his influence was most deeply felt, leaving a lasting impression on the work of such important artists as Paul Troubetzkoy and Medardo Rosso.

He began his artistic career at Milan's Brera Academy in the early 1860's, where he studied drawing and sculpture. In 1866 he won the Academy's Premio della Fondazione Canonica, a sculpture competition focussing on the nude. In the late 1860's and early 1870's he became part of the Milanese avant-guarde group styling themselves La Sapigliatura, which translates literally as "dishevelledness". One of their aims was to break up mass into the surrounding space and the present half figure of the young Beethoven, dating from this period, seems to succeed in the endeavour as he reaches his hand beyond the confines of the sculpture's traditional space and towards invisible keys. The jutting angular treatment of the hair and collar also seem to escape these confines.

Another cast of the Beethoven Giovinetto is in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Turin.

RELATED LITERATURE
Panzetta (2003), vol. 1, p. 442; Chiselled with a Brush, pp. 49 - 57