(Bagheria/Palermo 1912–1987 Rome)
Vaso con frutta, 1935–36, signed, oil on plywood, 50.2 x 32.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Bergamo
F. Pellin Collection, Varese
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
Milan-Rome, Renato Guttuso. Opere della Fondazione Francesco Pellin, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, 27 January-6 March 2005, Chiostro del Bramante, 16 March-5 June 2005, exh. cat. pp. 48-49, no. 2 with ill.

Parma, Guttuso. Passione e Realtà, Fondazione Magnani Rocca, 11 September – 8 December 2010 (label on the reverse)

Literature:
E. Crispolti, Catalogo ragionato generale dei dipinti di Renato Guttuso, vol. IV, Mondadori & associati, Milan 1985, no. 35-36/6 with ill.

According to a memory of Guttoso’s dating back to 1972-73, this still life must have been painted in Palermo, most likely on the occasion of one of his brief periods of return and work in Sicily.
His main residence was in Milan, in the army, from the beginning of 1935 and part of 1936. The subject appears committed to the simple pleasure of painting, managed with naturalness and sincerity. The “still life” was a recurring theme in the pictorial work of Guttuso from the mid-thirties, becoming a true leitmotiv at the beginning of the forties.