Francesco Vinea, Figurative Scene, 1881, Oil on Panel

Francesco Vinea (Forlì 1845 – Firenze 1902).
oil on panel measuring 31 x 42 cm. .
Sold unframed.
Signed and dated Firenze 1881.
The work has been restored (look at the photographs).
We have seen this same work in a larger size so it could be a sketch by the author or a commissioned work.
Biography
Francesco Vinea was born in Forlì and moved to Florence at an early age and at the age of fourteen was enrolled by his family in the Academy of Fine Arts.
There he followed the courses of Enrico Pollatrini (1817-1876), but soon moved away from romantic painting to become a representative of genre painting in costume.
Unfortunately, shortly after, he was forced to leave the Academy due to a series of financial difficulties that led him to undertake the activity of illustrator.
The profit is certain, but on the other hand Vinea can also obtain some benefits from this provisional work: copying works from the past, he makes an in-depth study of Italian art of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Meanwhile, he also works in a photography studio and continues his production of historical reconstruction work.
The subjects are light and captivating, but the painting is updated with developments from the Macchiaiolis he attended at the Caffè Michelangelo in the late 1950s.
The coloring is vivid and fascinating, the details are charming, the scenes depicted are exquisitely frivolous and mundane, following in the footsteps of Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier.
The reconstruction of the 18th century on easel is very welcome in the international market.
Then Francesco Vinea begins to send his paintings to exhibitions not only in Italy, but also in Europe.
In this way, he presents his affectionate genre painting to the most important art dealers, including Adolphe Goupil in Paris and Luigi Pisani in Florence.
It becomes very popular and very popular.
He has a studio on Viale Principe Eugenio in Florence that contains collectibles like a coffin, from tapestries to oriental vases, from ceramics to antique sculptures.
He is a tireless painter, participating in a large number of Italian and European exhibitions but also and above all privately commissioned works.
In the midst of his success, still busy executing several paintings, he died in Florence on October 22, 1902, at the age of fifty-seven.
In the years when he was still attending the Academy and in those immediately following, he moved away from the historical romanticism of Maestro Pollatrini and approached genre painting in costume.
The centuries that he prefers to reconstruct are the 17th and 18th centuries, following in the wake of the Frenchman Meissonier and the Spanish Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874).
The details of the girls' dresses are very detailed, as are the settings.
The color is sumptuous and bright, the perfect technique.
The themes, however, are absolutely devoid of a deep meaning: the light scenes are represented for the pure aesthetic taste of the collector in question.
The varied palette and casual design accompany noble women having tea, walking in the park with their cute pets, pleasant and easy-to-read interior scenes.
Francesco Vinea debuted in Florence at the National Exhibition of 1861 with Portrait of a Woman (life drawing), a painting that in a certain sense also anticipated his passion for the female nude.
His talent was immediately recognized: in 1863 he received the commission of a Michelangelo reciting his verses to Vittoria Colonna, for the royal apartments of the Pitti Palace.
Starting in the seventies, he sent his genre scenes to European exhibitions, becoming known with Le primizie, La mia Fanny, Un page alla corte dei Medici.
In 1871 he presented My Wife and My Dog, The Love Letter, and Tranquility in Naples.
His paintings are requested by both Goupil and Pisani, with whom he signs a contract.
Vinea achieved success in a very short time with paintings such as Breakfast in the Country, Wedding Procession, Among Grape Leaves, Interior of a Tavern, At the Piano, Snack.
Also famous are reconstruction paintings such as Musketeers and Duel and intimate love scenes such as Voluptuous Sins, A Date and A Word of Love.
The grace of the pictorial touch and an always festive atmosphere permeate the scenes that take place in delicate flower gardens where the girls drink tea or coffee, as happens in Giovinetta in giardino, The coffee cup, The painter.
On the other hand, the nudes in which the artist expresses himself best are A Solitary Bather, Nude of a Woman and Odalisque.
Along with the most popular costume scenes, Francesco Vinea also creates a series of landscape or genre paintings with a pastoral and rural theme.
Peasants and figures immersed in landscapes that show a clear connection with Tuscan realism are present in several paintings.
Examples are In Lerici, On the lake, Landscape with figure, Village, Peasant in the vineyard.
Here the painter appears freer from the dictates of international fashion and more oriented towards a simple naturalism without frills.