(Mondovi 1844–1898 Turin)
Off to the hunt (mattinata di caccia), signed, dated GB Quadrone (18)87, oil on panel, 56 x 45 cm, framed, cradled, (Rei)

Provenance:
Private Collection Germany.

Compare:
Friedrich Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus 1979, vol. II, 1, p. 334, no. 1, 3.;
Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Quadrone - La vita, I documenti, le opere - Catalogo Ragionato, Umberto Allemandi C., Turin, 1998, no. 512 (Mattinata di caccia, 1886)

The predominantly Turin-based painter Giovanni Battista Quadrone was a master of genre and costume design. With great artistry and a pinch of humour, he set his protagonists in seemingly everyday situations of rural life or an imagined past. His figures wear their costumes with great ease and never appear disguised. He captured different surfaces and textures with almost hyper-realistic precision, yet his paintings never seem lifeless, as he had a keen eye for body language and gestures. This also applies to his representations of animals, which reveal his outstanding powers of observation.
The present lot belongs to the group of works of his hunting scenes. In ‘Off to the hunt’, the old hunter, equipped with furs and a fur cap for long hours in the cold, picks up his hunting dog from the warm stable, where she finds it difficult to part with her puppies. Even the little dogs do wish to say goodbye: one hangs its little head, another tries to get some milk from her teats. The child on the left seems happy to soon have the puppies all to herself.
The stable is full of details that catch the eye: old shoes, water bowls, all kinds of hunting utensils and pictures of saints on the walls. These reveal more about the everyday life and living environment of the characters and invite the viewer to imagine even more little episodes from this country life.