The pleasure in discovering paintings

A great connoisseur of the “three Italians in Paris” - Giovanni Boldini, Giuseppe De Nittis and Federico Zandomeneghi –, Enrico Piceni, as well as performing his occupation as a critic and expert, created over time a significant collection of paintings with a very personal imprint. The “tarantula” of collecting, as he called it, had taken him since his youth. While still working as a press officer at the Mondadori publishing house, he had made habit of going out every night to exhibitions or to auctions. His passion, ever since then, was mainly for those Italian masters of the nineteenth century that were snubbed at the time by most critics, who considered them “provincial” compared to the French Impressionists.
In love with of his favorite painters, Piceni spent many years between Milan, where he was born and lived, and Paris, where he followed in the footsteps of Italian artists who worked beyond the Alps. For him it was a great pleasure to go in search of paintings, which he then described to friends, or in his writings, more with the vivacity of an enthusiast than the erudition of a scholar.
From his acquaintances in galleries and antique shops, or at auctions, he would happen to recognize works of major importance in paintings that were yet unknown or underestimated. The natural intuition that distinguishes every shrewd and insightful collector, coupled with a significant degree of autonomy of choice, caused him, not infrequently, to choose over the most striking paintings, other works that were perhaps less obvious but more refined. His taste, and his ability to perceive quality in the work of less established names, made him appreciate the less revered “minor” painters. That's why in his collection, alongside masterpieces of De Nittis and Zandomeneghi, there are works by such authors as Giuseppe Puricelli, Amos Cassioli, Francesco Gioli, which, to quote a Frenchman, Galien Lalou, were bought for a few francs, or a few lire. As Piceni writes in the book Tra libri e quadri (Enrico Piceni, ed. Ceschina., Milan 1971, p.179), "it is not always true that we should always remain in the realm of the Masters, and thus, of millions. There have been in the nineteenth century a great many painters of less acclaim that can give great satisfaction to truly passionate collectors."
Here follows a selection of paintings belonging to what was his collection, now managed by the F.E.P.

Paesaggio toscano
in tempo di pioggia