Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 15

Leonardo Roda (Racconigi, 1868 – Torino, 1933)
Leonardo Roda (Racconigi, 1868 - Turin, 1933), A Day Finished

$16,771.57
£12,704.85
€14,400
CA$23,234.74
A$26,059.31
CHF 13,646.85
MX$316,645.97
NOK 173,292.20
SEK 164,293.21
DKK 109,638.24

About the Item

Leonardo Roda (Racconigi, 1868 - Turin, 1933) When the day is over Oil on canvas, 120 x 170 cm Framed, 151 x 201 cm Signed at lower right: "L.Roda" The majestic canvas under consideration should be included in the prolific output of Piedmontese painter Leonardo Roda (Racconigi, 1868- Turin, 1933), as attested by the signature affixed to the lower right, known primarily for his rural and mountain landscapes. Born in Racconigi, in the province of Cuneo, Roda trained mostly as a self-taught artist, despite a period in Turin at the studio of artist and writer Marco Calderini (1850 - 1941), where he developed, following the master's example, a painting style aimed at capturing the beauty and serenity of nature. Indeed, his works often depicted wide landscapes and scenes of rural life, with peasants at work in the fields or quiet villages nestled among the hills. Roda masterfully rendered the grandeur of the snow-capped peaks, the lush valleys and the play of light and shadow on the rock faces. He regularly exhibited his works in major Italian cities such as Milan, Turin, Genoa and Florence, participating in various exhibitions, including the Promotrici di Torino and the annual exhibitions at the Circolo degli Artisti until 1925, thus effectively earning the appreciation of the public and critics. His style, while remaining true to the landscape tradition, showed a modern sensibility in his brushwork and use of color. A passionate mountaineer and botanist, he often stayed in Valtournanche, Aosta Valley, bringing back to canvas the most characteristic views of the valley, particularly painting the Matterhorn in every declination of period and light, executing numerous versions of it with small variations both in large format and as sketches with fresh, quick and elegant drafts. A great friend of the Ligurian writer and journalist Edmondo De Amicis (1846 - 1908), who commemorated him in the "Aosta" magazine of the valley's provincial administration, he often traveled along the Ligurian Riviera, which he traveled from east to west, often pausing in his beloved Bordighera, and reaching as far as the French Riviera (Fra Celle e Albisola, 1899, French Riviera, 1907). Today his works are held in important Italian collections, such as Preludio d'Inverno, formerly owned by the Istituto Bancario Italiano and now held in the art collections of the Fondazione Cariplo, and another painting at the Gaffoglio Museum in Rapallo. He died in Turin in 1933. The canvas presented here, titled A Day Finished, which shows a group of peasants on horseback intent on returning home after a hard day's work in the fields while in the background rise the smoking chimneys symbolizing the advancing new industrialized city, can be compared iconographically and ideologically with Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo's Il Quarto Stato (1901, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan), going, therefore, to represent a true social and political manifesto, an icon of the peasant and working-class condition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Italy at the turn of the century was, in fact, a country undergoing profound social and economic transformations. Industrialization, though still limited to certain areas, had created an urban proletariat in often miserable conditions, with grueling working hours and low wages. At the same time, in the countryside, masses of peasants were struggling against poverty and landlordism, while socialist and anarchist ideas were spreading rapidly, fueling strikes and demands for better living conditions and recognition of workers' rights. Roda, as well as Pelizza da Volpedo, deeply sensitive to the social issues of his time and influenced by socialist thought, felt the urgency to represent this nascent political and social force within this canvas, evidence of a new class of conscious workers emerging. The composition of the painting is powerful and symbolic: the compact group of men and women advancing determinedly on horseback toward the viewer is bathed in sunset light that symbolizes hope for a future of redemption. The faces are serious and determined, but not aggressive; there are no weapons or signs of violence, only the strength of numbers and the awareness of a newfound unity. From a formal point of view, his works are inscribed in the verista current, demonstrating a great commitment to representing the world in an authentic and non-idealized way through full-bodied and rapid brushstrokes: even in his lyrical interpretation of the landscape, Roda strives to render the concreteness of the figures of the proletariat, removed from any rhetoric, the materiality of the earth and the truthfulness of the light. Mostly remembered as a painter of landscapes, this work reveals to us a deep-rooted connection of the artist with the Italian territory, as well as a sincere observation of the real and a present social sensibility that make, in fact, the canvas a rare testimony to the coming industrialization.
  • Creator:
    Leonardo Roda (Racconigi, 1868 – Torino, 1933) (Italian)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 47.25 in (120 cm)Width: 66.93 in (170 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    120x170Price: $16,772
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Milan, IT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2639216356382

More From This Seller

View All
John Califano (Rome, 1864 - Chicago, 1924), Snowy mountain landscape
Located in Milan, IT
John Califano (Rome, 1864 - Chicago, 1924) Snowy mountain landscape Oil on canvas, 74 x 90 cm With frame 90 x 107 cm Signed lower right The pleasant winter view under considera...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Giovanni Bonomi (Venice, active in the second half of the 19th century), View
Located in Milan, IT
Giovanni Bonomi (Venice, active in the second half of the 19th century) View with the Rialto Bridge Oil on canvas, 37 x 49 cm With frame 43 x 56 cm Signed "G. Bonomi" bottom righ...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Domingo Motta (1872 - 1962), View of Ancient Rome
Located in Milan, IT
Domingo Motta (1872 - 1962) View of ancient Rome - Jesus witnesses the triumph of Constantine Oil on canvas, 88 x 148 cm Framed, 114 x 180 cm Signed lower right Ligurian painter...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

By Stefano Donadoni (Somasca, BG, 1844 - Rome, 1911), View of the Campidoglio
Located in Milan, IT
Stefano Donadoni (Somasca, BG, 1844 - Rome, 1911) View of the Capitol from the Forum Watercolor on paper, 27 x 38 cm Framed, 53 x 64 cm Signed lower right Stefano Donadoni was b...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Ferdinando Brambilla (Milan, 1838-1921), The Nun of Monza
Located in Milan, IT
Ferdinando Brambilla (Milan, 1838-1921) The nun of Monza Oil on canvas, 60.5x49 cm Signed and dated lower right "Brambilla 1868" The painting depicts a nun caught in the intimate...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Piero Leidi, Glimpse of Ponte di Legno
Located in Milan, IT
Piero Leidi (Brescia, 1892 - Bedizzole, 1976) Mountain glimpse with Ponte di Legno Tempera on cardboard, 23 x 17 cm Signed lower right "P.Leidi"; dated 1943 and inscribed on the ...
Category

20th Century Other Art Style Landscape Paintings

Materials

Tempera, Cardboard

You May Also Like

Vizzotto Alberti (Venetian realist painter) - early 20th century figure painting
Located in Varmo, IT
Enrico Vizzotto Alberti (Oderzo 1880 - Padua 1976) - The 7th regiment of Milan lancers. 25.5 x 35 cm without frame, 51.5 x 57 cm with frame. Ancient...
Category

Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Ear Market - Chioggia 1936
Located in Como, IT
Leonardo Bazzaro (Milan, 1853 - 1937) Ear Market • Chioggia 1936 Signed lower right Oil on panel in gilt frame Size: 60 x 90 cm (82 x 112 cm including frame) The son of a cloth ...
Category

20th Century Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Fernand Laval (1886-1966) Paris School Art Deco Period Oil Painting
By Fernand Laval
Located in Holywell, GB
Fernand Laval (1886-1966) Paris School Art Deco Period La fete des Loges 1929 A delightful post impressionist painting of a fairground scene in Loges, n...
Category

Early 20th Century Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Carriage
Located in Genève, GE
Work on cardboard Golden wooden frame 32 x 41 x 2.5 cm
Category

Late 20th Century Italian School Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil

Giovanni Riva (Italian vedutist painter) - 20th century landscape painting
By Giovanni Riva
Located in Varmo, IT
Giovanni Riva (Turin 1890 - Turin 1973) - Venice, view of the basin of St. Mark with the Doge's Palace. 18 x 24 cm without frame, 29 x 34 cm with frame. Oil on cardboard, in a cont...
Category

Mid-20th Century Naturalistic Landscape Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil

Via di San Leonardo, Florence (Italy) - Oil Paint - 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Via di San Leonardo, Florence (Italy) is an oil painting on pressed cardboard realized at the beginning of the 20th Century. Good condition (light color degradation). Frame included.
Category

20th Century Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil