In this splendid panel, datable to the early years of the 20th century, the subject of the country lane with the snow-covered mountains in the background appears to serve as a pretext for a study of variations in the effect of light on things. 

At the end of the 1870s, Enrico Reycend began to experiment with the use of quick, fluid brushwork and fresh colours, “bright because they are seldom mixed on the palette”,¹ to depict the suburbs and gardens of Turin as well as hills, orchards, valleys and countryside from the Canavese to the area of Saluzzo, where his wife Rosa Bertola was born, and subsequently also the ports and beaches of Liguria (the Cerruti Collection includes his large Porto di Genova (Port of Genoa) of 1886, cat. p. 618, and the smaller seascape Riflessi di sole (Refelctions of Sunlight) painted around 1887, cat. p. 620). 

In this splendid panel, datable to the early years of the 20th century, the subject of the country lane with the snow-covered mountains in the background appears to serve as a pretext for a study of variations in the effect of light on things. Faithful as always to his idea of nature as poetic and “delicate”, Reycend chose a simple and indeed almost commonplace subject addressed with very free brushwork that moulds the forms without lingering over descriptive details. What predominates is instead an interest in the overall chromatic effects and the rendering of atmosphere. The pyramid-like mass of Monviso shines with a white glow beyond the bare ridges of the mountains and the reddish roofs of the houses, while in the foreground broad patches of shadow alternate with areas of light to create a deepening succession of planes suggested also by the vanishingpoint perspective of the road, the buildings and the rows of trees with yellowing leaves. The same slice of reality can be seen in a small painting of equally successful tonal harmony entitled La strada (The Road, oil on cardboard, 32.8 x 23.7 cm, private collection).² 

Shown in Turin at the Galleria Fogliato in 1979 in the exhibition Omaggio al mondo di Enrico Reycend (as attested by the printed label on the back) and then in the annual exhibition of the Fogliato brothers on 19th-century painters, Monviso da Saluzzo (View of Monviso from Saluzzo) probably entered the Cerruti Collection the same year. 

Monica Tomiato 

1 L. Carluccio, in Turin 1979, np. 

2 Turin 2018-19, p. 78 fig.