Girl from Olévano | Narodna galerija

Olévano Romano in the Lazio, not far from Rome, is famous for the classical beauty of its women and girls, whom painters often used as models.

This portrait from around 1939–40 is typical of Severini’s classicist phase, in which he took some elements of Picasso’s classicist period in the first half of the twenties and academised them.

Artist Gino Severini

Year of creation 1935/1940

Technique oil, panel

Dimensions 35,4 x 25,4 cm

Inventory number NG S 1994, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Provenance: Presented to the Narodna galerija in 1942 by the Italian occupation authority of the province; confirmation of the inventorisation of the painting dated 16 April 1943, old Inv. No. 1859; 1952–1983 on loan to the Moderna galerija, Ljubljana.
Exhibitions: 1940, Milan; 1940, Venice, No. 5 or 13; 1940, Zurich; 1983, Ljubljana, No. 104.
Lit.: Domus, No. 145, May 1940, p. 71; Apollonio 1944, p. 38; Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, p. 173, Cat. and Fig. No. 104; Fonti 1988, p. 450, No. 632 (dated ca. 1939–40).