Attr. a Elena Recco (Napoli, 1654 - 1700)

Splendid oil on canvas depicting a still life with fish and a copper jug in the background. The group of fish in the foreground is expertly illuminated by the atmospheric light, which, as the cobalt blue sky suggests, seems to be casting nightfall on the scene. The painting analyzed here is an interesting piece alongside the more typical and better production by Elena Recco, as highlighted in the book 'Nature morte del Seicento e del Settecento' (edited by Patrizia Consigli Valente, Parma, 1987, pp. 10-11). The foreground arrangement of the fish, through an abundant construction, is found in some of her most successful works. The composition under analysis fully reflects the distinctive characteristics of Recco's production: the support surface contains the exposed fish, immersed in a subdued but diffused light coming from the landscape in the background. The fish in the foreground present the peculiar characteristics of her works: the particular pink, greenish and blue-gray hues of the scales, combined with a sparkling vitality of the freshly caught prey, which shine with silvery reflections, revealing their vitality, expressed by the shine of the eyes, large and open, and by the contortions of the bodies. The painting is in excellent condition and is mounted on a beautiful gilded and carved nineteenth-century frame. The canvas measures 70 x 46 cm; the overall measurements including the frame are 84 x 59 cm. Elena Recco: Neapolitan painter active between the late 17th and early 18th centuries. She belongs to a well-known dynasty of painters, of whom the most famous is her father, Giuseppe Recco, a renowned genre painter. A sought-after and high-quality painter, she was invited to the Spanish Court, where she resided for long periods and where some of her floral-themed canvases are preserved. But Elena's favorite subject is marine iconography. With vivid realism and a skillful use of light, she depicts crustaceans, corals, fish of various shapes and colors; the silvery and blue-gray reflections of the scales, the wriggling torsion of the bodies, the particular pink hue of the scales, combined with a sparkling vitality of the freshly caught prey that exudes the dampness of the sea, are her hallmark. Signed works are rare. Her paintings can be found in Spain, in the Zarzuela complex, in the Warsaw Museum, in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, in the City Art Gallery of Leeds, and in private collections.