Valentino Ghiglia (Italian, 1903-1960)

Vecchiano-Pinewood, c. 1929

Oil paint on canvas, 51 x 35 ¼ inches (unframed)

The Madden Collection at the University of Denver, 2016.1.87

Valentino Ghiglia was the older son of Oscar Ghiglia (also in the Madden Collection). Valentino taught himself to paint at home along with his brother Paulo, despite their father's opposition to his sons taking up the profession of painting. So great was the two brothers' love of the art, however, that the father decided to introduce them to painting. He said to them, "modern painting is the vibration of color, perceived while in a special frame of mind", adding that the single source of inspiration should be nature, and that the artist must seek to avoid any kind of mannerism. Valentino's first solo show took place at the Pesaro Art Gallery in Milan.

After this exhibit, he began to work a good deal, participating in a large number of trade shows, and at the Quadriennials in Rome, Trieste, and Florence. During different periods of his life, he lived in Spain and in Paris, and he often went to Brittany to paint the Northern coast. His most characteristic and admired works reproduce either the Northern countryside or typical Parisian scenes.

Vecchiano is a town in Tuscany, North of the city of Pisa, and a native location of the Italian Stone Pine tree, botanical name Pinus pinea, seen in Ghiglia’s painting. These trees dominate the forested walking trials and roads of Vecchiano and is commonly used even today as ornamentation in gardens, and along paths and roads.  It is the Stone Pine’s height, thick sturdy trunk, and broad flat crown of the canopy, resembling an umbrella, that creates an orderly pattern liked by many landscapers.