Italian Moonlight Landscape By Alberto Cecconi, Vintage Original Oil Painting

VINTAGE ORIGINAL IMPRESSIONIST OIL ON CANVAS PAINTING BY ALBERTO CECCONI, (ITALIAN 1897-1971)

Depicting a rural landscape at night with the full moon glowing behind a grove of gnarly mature olive trees, illuminating a wildflower meadow in the foreground with long grass and red poppies.

Painted in an impressionist style, possibly en plein air, with quick, confident brushstrokes. There is a softness and the artist has managed to capture the romanticism and slightly ethereal feeling of the situation with great skill.

Signed to the lower right ‘A. Cecconi’ and inscribed verso ‘Notturo Oli, Alberto Cecconi’. ‘Notturo Oli’ translates to English ‘Night Oil’. There is also a further inscription in Italian which has become rather feint and indistinct.

The work probably dates from somewhere in the first half of the 20th century, circa 1930s-1950s and is Italian in origin.

Cecconi was born in 1897 in Florence (Firenze), he travelled in throughout Africa and South America in the interwar period and later returned to Italy where he remained. Although he painted other subjects, it is his landscapes that he is most well known for and are the most sought after of his works. The record at auction for his work was for ‘Pascolo nella vasta campagna’, a large landscape which sold at Christies, Rome in 2005 for 8,680 EUR.

Provenance: purchased from the granddaughter of the original owner who always remembered the painting being hung in the family home of her grandmother in Naples (Napoli).

The painting is in good vintage condition with wear commensurate with age and no serious issues.

Overall approximate measurements: 61cm wide x 46cm high x 2cm deep.