Massimo Campigli (Italian, 1895-1971): Three Women Descending the Stairs, Oil on paper adhered to illustration board, Signed lower left. Unframed.

Dimensions: 23.25 x 10.5 inches; 28x15 inches, frame.

Condition: Good aged condition. This works is created on 3 sheets of paper that are adhered to a stiff, paper board. The artist has extended the painting beyond the paper edge, continuing to paint onto the backing board.

Massimo Campigli began his career as a journalist, writing for Futurist and Avant-garde magazines in Italy in the 1910s. After being taken as a prisoner of war during World War I, Campigli served as a foreign correspondent in Paris in 1919 before joining the Paris Italians artist group, which also included the Futurist Gino Severini and Giorgio de Chirico. Campigli began depicting almond-eyed, frozen figures in 1928 when a trip to Rome’s Villa Giulia left the artist fascinated with Etruscan Art—the art produced in Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BCE. His most iconic works—pale, fresco-like paintings of women—mirrored a broader European revival of Ancient art as a response to the horrors of World War I.