Skilful application of the paint shatters the precision of the outlines, almost dissolving it. The landscape appears to be enveloped in the vibrant atmosphere of early autumn, rendered by the artist using bright touches of colour and soft striation. 

Described by Roberto Longhi as a “subtle and highly cultured” artist, Vittorio Avondo was a keen traveller, a culture enthusiast and a real expert in antiques, as well as an artist working in the most lyrical and intimate vein of Piedmontese landscape painting. He was born into a well-to-do family and completed his studies in Vercelli, revealing an early interest in painting. His artistic training began in Geneva, where he had the opportunity to observe the fine quality of Antonio Fontanesi’s landscape paintings. He completed his studies in Rome between 1857 and 1860-61. While living in the city, he got to know Alfredo d’Andrade, Mariano Fortuny and Nino Costa. Together with d’Andrade he began work on restoring the castle of Issogne that he had purchased in 1872, going on to gift it to the Italian state in 1907. Over the following years, Avondo distinguished himself through other challenging restoration projects involving a number of historical buildings, such as Palazzo Silva in Domodossola (from 1883) and Casa Cavassa in Saluzzo in 1884. 

Mattina d’autunno (Autumn Morning) seems to belong to this more mature phase of his life, testifying to his consistent search for a landscape art suffused with poetry, where a serene luminosity is highlighted by a foreground in shadow, following the lesson learned from Fontanesi. The image focuses on the thin, sinuous trunks of the two trees, whose boughs form a sort of arabesque shape against the blue sky. Beneath their branches, shown in contre-jour, we can see a female figure, while just below her is a man, both immersed in the enchantment of nature. Meanwhile, in the full light behind them, a boat is leaving the riverbank. A bell tower stands out in the background, connected to a long building with a red tiled roof, while nearby are a number of whitewashed constructions. 

Skilful application of the paint shatters the precision of the outlines, almost dissolving it. The landscape appears to be enveloped in the vibrant atmosphere of early autumn, rendered by the artist using bright touches of colour and soft striation. This style also suggests a later date, despite the difficulties caused by the fact that very few of his works are dated. It could be helpful if we could identify the place where the work was painted. The theory suggested here is that it could be an image linked to his visits to the area around Saluzzo, when restoring Casa Cavassa in around 1884. On this basis, the imposing bell tower could belong to the abbey of Staffarda, while the long building with the red-tiled roof is still part of the abbey complex today. The watercourse glimpsed here is the Po, which flows close by to the east, running between the abbey and what is now the main road to Pinerolo. 

One of the personal recollections of Annalisa Polesello Ferrari (the assistant of Francesco Federico Cerruti) provides very useful information for reconstructing the provenance of the painting. She recalls it being purchased directly in the home of the Turin spiritualist and painter Gustavo Rol, where Cerutti had seen it and been fascinated by it. The purchase must therefore have been made after 1983-84. 

Virginia Bertone