Giuseppe Magni

(Italian, 1869-1956)

Peeling Potatoes, circa 1st quarter 20th c.

Oil on canvas

22" x 27 1/2"

A domestic scene of a mother and two children peeling potatoes while another woman tends to a pot on the hearth, and a hen and her chicks scour the floor for shavings. Housed in a frame measuring 31" x 37".

Giuseppe Magni was a Florentine artist, the student of artists including Antonio Ciseri and Giovanni Fattori. Best known for interior genre scenes, Magni was a decorated painter who would eventually become a professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Like his contemporaries Giovanni Torriglia, Eugenio Zampighi, and Gaetano Chierici, Magni's portrayal of peasants and working class subjects conveyed his belief that happiness is found not from wealth, but from relationships, family, and simple pleasures of a quiet life.

There is a minor pinhole to the canvas in the top left, and a small patch to repair a 1/4" tear in the top right. Minor spatter. No in-painting or over-painting was noted under blacklight inspection, outside of a very small touch-up around the afore-mentioned 1/4" tear.