In Countryside in the Dauphiné, shades of ochre, earth and green dominate the foreground, before giving way to the blues and pearly greys of the sky. 

Formerly owned by the Milanese collector Vittorio Basso, this enchanting Dauphiné landscape was exhibited in 1932 in the major Fontanesi retrospective in Turin, organised by the art critic Marziano Bernardi and the director of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Vittorio Viale. The work was dated to the period between 1860 and 1865 on that occasion. Seventeen years later, Campagna nel Delfinato (Countryside in the Dauphiné) featured in another fundamental Fontanesi exhibition: the one organised by the art historian Giuliano Briganti in Reggio Emilia in 1949. In the accompanying catalogue, the date was brought forward to 1857-62. This seems credible and we could even suggest restricting it to the two-year period from 1860-61 due to its similarities with the Study for “The Ford” (Piacenza, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Ricci Oddi), the definitive version of which was exhibited in 1861 in Geneva. The two works both share their research into colour, experimenting with a singularly thin application of paint and a limited range of hues that brings them closer to being monochromes. 

In Countryside in the Dauphiné, shades of ochre, earth and green dominate the foreground, before giving way to the blues and pearly greys of the sky. The image offers a lovely glimpse of the French countryside, with the shadows of the trees marked out on the ground in the hot afternoon light. The earlier date is also suggested by the vast, almost solemn size of the landscape, in which we seem to grasp an echo of his first fusains, the large charcoal drawings typical of the Swiss romantic tradition, from Diday to Calame, which Fontanesi was one of the few foreign artists to master. 

The work is unsigned, but the authoritative opinion of the painter Marco Calderini (Turin, 1850-1941), inscribed along the bottom, attests to its authenticity. In 1932 it was exhibited in Turin along with another eight paintings from the collection of Basso. During the exhibition in Reggio Emilia in 1949, the painting had already passed into the Turin-based collection of Sebastiano Sandri. A further transfer is recorded by another document - unfortunately only partial and undated - among Cerruti’s papers. The document in question is the bill of sale for this and other works from the Sandri Collection, purchased by Giorgio and Dina De Lucca Lombardi. 

With no critical studies to its name, Countryside in the Dauphiné was published in 2001 by Piergiorgio Dragone, who dated it to 1863. 

Virginia Bertone