Alessandro Magnasco Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Magnasco Alessandro, Il Lissandrino (Italy 1667-1749)
On 4 February 1667, the Italian Rococo painter and designer Magnasco Alessandro, known for his short stature as Lissandrino, was born in Genoa.
Son of the painter Stefano Magnasco, Alessandro did not study with his father, who died at the age of three.
Lissandrino, despite his Genoese origins, spent most of his working life in Milan.
Between 1681 and 1682 he entered the studio of Filippo Abbiati (1640-1715). His "Christ Carrying the Cross" faithfully reproduces Abbiati's paintings in subject and composition.
Early in his career he was a portrait painter, but little is known about this period of his career.
The meeting with Sebastiano Ricci led Lissandrino to a new type of genre painting, characterized by vast fantastic landscapes full of bizarre and disturbing figures.
Indeed the artist is known for his dramatic scenes depicting stormy landscapes, ruins, monasteries, dark-atmosphere monasteries inhabited by monks, gypsies, mercenaries, witches, beggars and inquisitors and other slender figures.
From 1703 to 1711 he worked at the court of the Duke of Gian Gaston de' Medici in Florence, during which time the palette was illuminated to obtain fluid and transparent color effects representing popular and anecdotal themes such as "The Old Woman and the Gypsies" and today at the Gallery of the Uffizi in Florence.
It was from 1711 that the scene depicted by the painter changed, preferring the monastic setting and the representation of the monastery.
After collaborating with the landscape artists Antonio Francesco Peruzzini and Clemente Spera, Magnasco began between 1720 and 1725 to create landscapes and architectural ruins, in which he inserted his characters.
Lissandrino's activity is very prolific, although his work is rarely out of date.
The extreme emotional expression of "San Francisco in Ecstasy" was inspired by Francisco di Cairo's painting "The Dream of Elijah" (Milan, S Antonio Abate).
Magnasco, on the other hand, expressed himself in a very personal way, his forms divided by rapid brushstrokes and flickering flashes. Read the full biography

Magnasco Alessandro, Il Lissandrino (Italy 1667-1749)
On 4 February 1667, the Italian Rococo painter and designer Magnasco Alessandro, known for his short stature as Lissandrino, was born in Genoa.
Son of the painter Stefano Magnasco, Alessandro did not study with his father, who died at the age of three.
Lissandrino, despite his Genoese origins, spent most of his working life in Milan.
Between 1681 and 1682 he entered the studio of Filippo Abbiati (1640-1715). His "Christ Carrying the Cross" faithfully reproduces Abbiati's paintings in subject and composition.
Early in his career he was a portrait painter, but little is known about this period of his career.
The meeting with Sebastiano Ricci led Lissandrino to a new type of genre painting, characterized by vast fantastic landscapes full of bizarre and disturbing figures.
Indeed the artist is known for his dramatic scenes depicting stormy landscapes, ruins, monasteries, dark-atmosphere monasteries inhabited by monks, gypsies, mercenaries, witches, beggars and inquisitors and other slender figures.
From 1703 to 1711 he worked at the court of the Duke of Gian Gaston de' Medici in Florence, during which time the palette was illuminated to obtain fluid and transparent color effects representing popular and anecdotal themes such as "The Old Woman and the Gypsies" and today at the Gallery of the Uffizi in Florence.
It was from 1711 that the scene depicted by the painter changed, preferring the monastic setting and the representation of the monastery.
After collaborating with the landscape artists Antonio Francesco Peruzzini and Clemente Spera, Magnasco began between 1720 and 1725 to create landscapes and architectural ruins, in which he inserted his characters.
Lissandrino's activity is very prolific, although his work is rarely out of date.
The extreme emotional expression of "San Francisco in Ecstasy" was inspired by Francisco di Cairo's painting "The Dream of Elijah" (Milan, S Antonio Abate).
Magnasco, on the other hand, expressed himself in a very personal way, his forms divided by rapid brushstrokes and flickering flashes. His brushstrokes are trembling and tense, so rendered through the use of light that it produces an almost disturbing effect.
In 1735 he returned to Genoa and created many paintings with a religious theme, depicting vast and airy seascapes, such as "St. Anthony preaching to the fish" and scenes of aristocratic life, such as "Reception in the gardens of Albarro".
Among the artists still more influenced by Magnasco's art, Marco Ricci and Francesco Guardi stand out.
At the end of his life, his production stopped due to violent tremors in his hands, which would cause him to no longer be able to handle brushes.
Alessandro Magnasco died in Genoa on 12 March 1749.