Oil painting on canvas “The Walnut Trees” by Arturo Tosi, 1951

Oil painting on canvas entitled "The Walnut Trees", created by Arturo Tosi in 1951

Ø 40 cm, height 32 cm

Arturo Tosi (Busto Arsizio, 1871 – Milan, 1945) was one of the leading figures in Italian painting during the first half of the 20th century and a central figure in the Novecento Italiano movement.

His painting is characterized by a post-Impressionist language that evolved into a more solid and constructive form. Although he never abandoned the primacy of color, Tosi sought a classical synthesis of form. He is especially renowned for his landscapes, particularly those of Lake Iseo and the Bergamo hills, painted with dense, vibrant brushstrokes. He exhibited regularly at the Venice Biennale and received important awards, becoming one of the most collected artists of his time.

Arturo Tosi was one of the seven founders of the Novecento Italiano movement, established in Milan in 1922 under the ideological impetus of Margherita Sarfatti. Sarfatti saw in Tosi the embodiment of the "modern yet ancient painter." In an era marked by the fragmentation of Futurism, Tosi represented the Italian path to the "Return to Order": a form of painting that did not renounce the modernity of color, but recovered the solidity, composition, and sense of volume characteristic of the great classical tradition. While other members of the group, such as Sironi, were more austere and monumental, Tosi brought a note of lyricism and chromatic sensuality. Sarfatti often described him as the painter capable of conveying the "poetry of the earth."