Lot 57

MacConnal-Mason & Son, London (label verso)
The Estate of Mr. David Hains, Melbourne

Despite beginning as a landscape painter, Gaetano Chierici earned an international reputation for his paintings of humble farming lifestyles executed with exquisite detail. The sincerity in his genre paintings earned him the title 'poet of the family', as it was not just the objects and settings of his paintings that were of importance to him but also the interactions between his characters and the overall narrative that they translated. The Happy Family 1870 dates from the artist's 'descriptive period', where the poor are represented as a happy community. The fireplace is often central and represents the heart of the home, whilst also enabling Chierici to flex his brush in the balance of light and shadow. Great thought is given to the placement of every object in the scene, as well as the tattered clothing and smiling expressions of the figures with a father-figure noticeably absent.