Genoa and the Western Riviera

Volpe, Francesco

GX1993.638

olio su tela

The painting was commissioned on the occasion of the 1911 Turin Exposition by the Società anonima italiana Gio. Ansaldo Amstrong & C., which was formed in 1903 following an agreement between Gio. Ansaldo & C. and the British warship manufacturer Amstrong and dissolved in 1912. The work is mentioned in a letter dated March 22, 1911, from Carlo Manzitti, Ansaldo's chief engineer and head of relations with the executors of the pavilion in Turin, and in an article signed by Giovanni Bistolfi, commissioned by Perrone themselves for probable publication in Ansaldo promotional magazines. In this large-scale painting, Genoese painter Franz Volpe, a pupil of Cesare Viazzi, depicts in its vastness the complex and grandiose structure of Ansaldo's industrial plants, located along the Ligurian coast from Genoa to Sestri Ponente, in a city setting then in the midst of urban expansion. Triptych done in oil on canvas depicting the Ligurian coast as seen from the sea, from Genoa to Sestri Ponente. Inscriptions are visible at the bottom of the canvas identifying the portion of the painting they refer to.