Eugenio Spreafico (1856 – 1919) - Women with children

Eugenio Spreafico (Monza, 1856 – Magreglio, 1919)?
Women with children - 1889

Mixed media on paper
Measures: 60x40 cm (80x62 cm including the frame)

He trained artistically at the Brera Academy, where he was a pupil of Francesco Hayez and Giuseppe Bertini, from whom he was directed to a romantic Verismo.
He made his debut in Brera in 1880, inaugurating a long-lasting exhibition in the sign of a painting based on truth. The countryside of Monza and the landscapes of Lake Como are often the protagonists of his paintings. In the first phase of his activity, he also devoted himself to portraits of sentimental romanticism, influenced by master Hayez.
From 1881, the so-called Monzese period, Spreafico approached the Verismo of his fellow citizen Mosè Bianchi, who paid particular attention to the plots of contemporary Scapigliatura. He is appreciated as an attentive illustrator of nature, with works inspired by the Lombard countryside. The favorite subjects, in this phase, are the workers and workers: farmers, laundresses, workers, children intent on reading while taking care of the cattle, figures represented while they are immersed in nature, in a close relationship between the figure and the landscape.
From the mid-eighties he moved to Magreglio, where he dedicated himself to landscape painting, especially of Monza, Brianza and its lakes, in addition to the execution of portraits on commission. In this phase, he alternated a realistic painting, with narrative and sentimental intent, with a strong focus on social themes and work in the fields, in particular the female one in analogy to some works by his colleagues Emilio Longoni and Pellizza da Volpedo.
In his later period, decorating from the early 1900s to his death, he sought an elaboration of the painting in a post-scapigliata key.