Oscar Ghiglia
(Livorno, 1876 - Florence, 1945)
The yellow fan, (1908-1910)
Oil on cardboard
cm. diam. 19.5
The yellow fan is an already mature painting, referable to the early years of the second
decade, at the time of the transition between the neo-purist phase of the three-year period 1908-1910
and the subsequent Cézanian “conversion”.
The young woman is Enrica Morandini, his wife"s sister, also portrayed in another
painting from these same years (Fig. 3). The extremely synthetic structure, for large
taches of color allow the living essence of the support to emerge in several areas; the format
circular, absolutely unusual in Ghiglia"s production, finds its expression here
formal justification in the relationship with the yellow fan, the true focal centre
of the entire composition, around which a system of dialectical references is articulated
between the structure and function of color which takes on an autonomous value of character
almost "psychological" and of significant expressive value.
Information by Leonardo Ghiglia.