Artwork
Autumn
Autumn is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Corrado Giaquinto. It dates from 1745 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
No further details about Giaquinto's handling, specific pigments, underdrawing, or present condition are documented in the available sources.
Autumn is an oil on canvas painting by Corrado Giaquinto, executed in 1740. The work measures 108.4 cm in height by 151.5 cm in width, giving it a horizontal orientation suited to its seasonal subject. It belongs to a set of four allegorical paintings, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, originally held together in a single collection, indicating that Giaquinto conceived the series as a coordinated decorative ensemble rather than as isolated canvases.
The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., having entered the collection as a gift in 2001.
No further details about Giaquinto's handling, specific pigments, underdrawing, or present condition are documented in the available sources.
History & Provenance
Corrado Giaquinto created the oil-on-canvas painting Autumn in 1740 as part of a four-season allegorical set that also included Spring, Summer, and Winter. The work was originally held in the collection of the Comte d'Arthois in Paris. By the early 20th century, the set entered the United States, with Metropolitan Galleries in New York lending the paintings to exhibitions in Birmingham in 1931 and in their own galleries in 1932.
The group subsequently passed through the hands of Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries in 1938 and dealer Dr. Siegfried F. Aram by 1941. Philip Rizik's father acquired the set from a New York dealer, likely Aram, prior to 1953. Upon his death, the paintings passed to his widow, and following her death in 1978, they were inherited by their seven children.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., received the work as a gift from the Rizik family in 2001.
The painting Autumn by Corrado Giaquinto is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it was accessioned in 2001 as a gift from the Rizik family. Prior to this acquisition, the work passed through several New York dealers, including Metropolitan Galleries and Nicholas M. Acquavella Galleries, and was owned by Dr. Siegfried F. Aram and the Rizik family in Washington, D.C.
The work has a documented exhibition history spanning the 20th century. In 1931, the four-season cycle including Autumn was lent by Metropolitan Galleries to an exhibition in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by a display at the gallery's own New York location in 1932. The set was subsequently exhibited in Memphis in 1938 via Acquavella Galleries and in San Francisco in 1941 through Dr. Aram.
Context
Autumn is part of Corrado Giaquinto’s set of four allegorical seasons painted in 1740, which circulated in aristocratic and dealer networks in Paris and New York during the mid-twentieth century. The series passed from the Comte d’Artois in Paris through New York galleries and dealers including the Metropolitan Galleries and Dr. Siegfried F. Aram before entering the Rizik family collection and later being gifted to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in 2001.
Scholarly attention to Autumn has centered on its integration within Giaquinto’s broader decorative projects and the Rococo tradition of allegorical cycles. The painting’s provenance reflects the transatlantic circulation of eighteenth-century Italian art in the early modern market, highlighting how such sets were traded, exhibited, and dispersed in the twentieth century.
Overview
Created circa 1745 by the Italian painter Corrado Giaquinto, this oil on canvas work belongs to the Rococo period. Executed during the artist’s productive years in Naples and Rome, the painting presents a convivial outdoor gathering set beneath a large tree, rendered with the light, airy qualities typical of the era’s decorative aesthetic.
Subject & Meaning
The composition portrays a seasonal tableau that evokes the atmosphere of autumn. A varied group of figures, some seated, others standing or reaching upward, are arranged around foliage and a bountiful spread of fruit, cups, and musical instruments, suggesting a festive celebration of the harvest and the fleeting warmth of the season.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Corrado Giaquinto was an Italian Rococo painter who worked in Naples, Rome, Turin and Madrid.
