Vincenzo Cabianca’s masterpiece “Ai Bagni di Viareggio” goes up for auction in London

A painting by the 19th-century Italian artist Vincenzo Cabianca (Verona, 1827 – Rome, 1902) has reappeared for the first time in more than 150 years: it is entitled «At the baths of Viareggio» and it is the largest canvas that the leading painter of the Macchiaioli has ever painted and has remained unpublished since its debut in April 1866, when it was presented in an exhibition in Turin for the considerable sum of 1,800 lire.

The rediscovered work is the largest and most ambitious composition by Cabianca to hit the market in the last century. Coming from a private American collection, the painting will be auctioned at Sotheby’s “Evening Sale of Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings” in London on 5 July, with an estimate of £800,000-1,200,000. The painting, which encompasses a moment of great modernity, a bridge between realist and impressionist painting, between Italy and France, was purchased by the current owner’s grandfather, probably in Italy, before being handed down by succession to the family.

Claude Piening, Senior International Specialist and European Paintings at Sotheby’s, said: “This powerful painting is modern and radical both conceptually and compositionally. The painting symbolizes the encounter between the old and the new, between the ancient Tuscan fishing communities and the new rich and fashionable middle-class tourists. It brilliantly symbolizes the New Italy, in the wake of the unification of Italy, in which the old order gives way to the new. Not since Telemaco Signorini’s L’Alzaia, sold at Sotheby’s in 2003, have we dealt with such a monumental Macchiaiolo masterpiece».

The painting shows three young women walking around a fisherman and a local vendor carrying a large basket filled with fresh produce to sell to visiting tourists. In the background the famous marine baths of Viareggio are visible, inaugurated in 1853 and considered beneficial for health. The visitors to these bathing establishments wore the latest fashion clothes and accessories, which Cabianca took care to detail in his monumental composition. Changing rooms, such as the one visible in the right background behind the figure balancing a basket of towels on his head, offered beach-goers a private place to change into their bathing suits.

The Macchiaioli, from the term “macchia”, are inspired by the French realist painters of the Barbizon school, including J.-B.-C. Corot and Gustave Courbet, just like the Impressionists, with whom they would share stylistic affinities. The 1860s proved to be a crucial decade for Cabianca, who formed important friendships with colleagues Telemaco Signorini and Giuseppe Abbati; their travels to the seaside resorts of Tuscany will culminate in bold new experiments with colour, technique and composition. On 2 September 1865 Cabianca married Adelaide Lachi, an elementary school teacher in Parma. The couple honeymooned on the Tuscan coast and visited Viareggio, an emerging seaside town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, where Cabianca spent his summers painting and where the following year he painted the monumental representation of people gathered on the great beach of Versilia that now goes to the auction in London.