Rose Tower

Artist Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888 - 1978)

Date1913

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 28 13/16 x 23 15/16 inches (73.2 x 60.8 cm)
Framed: 35 3/4 x 30 13/16 x 2 1/4 inches (90.81 x 78.28 x 5.72 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art

Object number51-60

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionView of street lined with 2-storied buildings with loggies, opening on to a square. rose, credelated tower surrounded by low buildings of which one on left supports 2 flags on poles. on right, portion of equestrian statue behind loggia. casts shadow of the statue on wall and rose tower.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

In this deserted Italian city, a lone equestrian statue and the arcade of a building cast deep shadows across an empty piazza. Giorgio de Chirico's sharp perspective and strong colors evoke the melancholy, mystery, and heat of a late afternoon. In the distance, two rippling flags provide the only hint of motion.

Combining his interest in classical architecture, Renaissance perspective, and the unsettling philospohical writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Arthur Schopenhauer, and Otto Weininger, de Chirico painted works that were inteded to awaken the unconscious mind and reveal the metaphysical realities experienced in dreams.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by Pierre Roy (1880-1950), after May 5, 1935 [1];

With Carstairs Gallery, New York, by 1951;

Purchased from Carstairs Gallery by the Friends of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1951;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1951.

NOTES:

[1] According to Paolo Baldacci, Archivio Arte Metafisica, in an email to MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist, June 3, 2016, this painting is an artist copy of an earlier work which is today in the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA (BF597). It was exhibited and offered for sale by De Chirico at an exhibition in Prague, April 15-May 5, 1935. Georges Keller, Carstairs Gallery, described the painting’s provenance in a letter to Paul Gardner, Nelson-Atkins Director, December 10, 1951, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files: “It is very nice to know that it has found such a good home, in your Museum, as it was always a great favorite of mine, having known the painting during a great number of years while it was in the collection of the late Pierre Roy. He, as I think you know, acquired it direct from the artist.”

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