The blind son (2009) Original Oil Painting by Federico Cortese

From the series “They sleep on the hill”, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm.

In the “Spoon River Anthology” the poet Edgar Lee Masters tells the story of the people buried in the cemetery of a small imaginary village. In Italy, the singer-songwriter Fabrizio De Anbrè published a famous collection of songs inspired by the anthology; the first piece of the collection is titled "They sleep on the Hill."
I imagined to evoke in each of these paintings a little story about a person or an imaginary group of people. I try to make the story not too explicit but only vaguely mentioned. It may be a hidden love story, a underhand secret, a family conflict or an unpunished crime. It's not too important to understand the events involving these characters. After all, when you browse through old family albums you discover the faces of people who have become too unknown for the time spent, and we try to imagine how these people have lived. What connection linked them? They were happy? What really occupied their thoughts when the picture was taken?

Materials used:

oil on canvas

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 50 x 60 x 2cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the back
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: People and portraits