Lot 186
BRUNO CAPACCI (ITALIAN 1906-1996) §
L'ESPERANCE, 1975
Auction: Day Two | Lots 100 to 527 | Fri 31 October from 10am
Description
signed and dated (lower right), titled (to reverse), oil on board
Dimensions
83.7cm x 58cm (33in x 22 7/8in)
Provenance
with Group 2 Gallery, Brussels, from whom acquired by the present owner;
Private Collection, London.
Footnote
Exhibited:
Group 2 Gallery, Brussels, Variations on the Human Figure, February 2001.
Born in Venice and raised in Florence, Capacci settled in Paris in 1930, joining Les Italiens de Paris with de Chirico and Severini. He and his wife, Belgian painter Suzanne Van Damme, were closely connected with the Surrealists and exhibited at André Breton’s Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme at Galerie Maeght in 1947.
Capacci’s work—poetic, imaginative, and often featuring fantastical bestiaries—drew on Renaissance masters as well as Klee and Brauner. In Florence he developed ceramics, mosaics and porcelain, exhibiting widely in the US and collaborating with Haviland, Christofle and Rosenthal. He returned to Brussels in later life and died in 1996.
Suzanne Van Damme shared Capacci’s Parisian Surrealist milieu and exhibited internationally alongside him. Her work, admired for its lyrical sensitivity and dreamlike qualities, was celebrated posthumously in solo and joint exhibitions with Capacci.
