Campagna mesta | Sad landscape of Campania

Described by the artist as a sad landscape of Campania, the composition shows a stretch of Italian historical countryside along the shores of a mountain lake captured from the surrounding rushes. In the close-up, a pair of cranes rest among reeds rippling in the wind. One is searching for food in the water, while the other, standing guard, lets out a warning cry. A clump of trees in the distance partially obscures the slope of a steep, rocky mountain. A range of gentle hills stretches along the horizon. A sky covered with rain clouds contributes to the sad mood of the landscape. The drawing Campagna mesta by Ernesto Rayper (1840-1873) comes from the album L'acquaforte. Società d'artisti Italiani, published by the Turin publishing house of Carlo Lover in 1870, as the second portfolio of works produced by the Association of Italian Artists that year. Ernesto Rayper, the son of a wealthy businessman, gave up university to study painting with Tammar Luxoro (1824-1899) at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti in Genoa. Inspired by his master, he specialized in landscape art. As a student, he was already exposed to the Macchiaioli, an Italian art group active from the mid-19th century, the members of which, contrary to the conventions of the time, painted outdoors in order to capture natural light and colour most accurately. His work was also affected by such landscape painters as Camille Corot (1796-1875), Jules Dupré (1811-1889), Charles François Daubigny (1817-1878), and Constant Troyon (1810-1865). In 1860 he was active in the studio of Alexandre Calam (1810-1864) in Geneva. On his return to Genoa he further studied engraving with Raffael Granar (1807-1884). It was then that he began to develop his own style of plein air painting called Scuola grigia (Gray school), characterised by light, silvery tones and a rejection of black. In 1870, Rayper was made an honorary professor at the Accademia Ligustica. He was also a member of the Albertina Academy in Turin and the Urbino academy. Ewa Gwiazdowska