On auction this evening 4 June 2024 from Finarte in Milan the work “Aratura”, 1949-50 (II period) by Antonio Ligabue, according to the notes reported, the work describes a slightly curved path that descends from the top right towards the center of the left side, dividing the scene into two parts, the upper one with the typically Swiss village and the lower one with the quadrille of horses, seen in perspective and in front under stress pulling a plow encouraged by two rough and excited men. A dog barks in the foreground. The powerful and corpulent Norman horses show their psychology and their capacity for physical resistance with the attitude of their heads and muzzles. It is one of the works in which Ligabue experiments with the individuality of each horse despite being so united in the four-horse team.
The work is painted in oil on plywood, measures 48 x 68,2 cm, and is signed lower right: Ligabue Antonio and is authenticated on the reverse by Sergio Negri
Ligabue's work is predominantly by national interest and is present in several private collections. The values vary depending on the subject and the period. However, he remains an artist who maintains the investment and can be reevaluated over time.
Who was Antonio Ligabue
Antonio Ligabue, whose real surname is Laccabue, was born in Switzerland in Zurich on 18 December 1899. Son of an Italian emigrant, he was given up for adoption to a Swiss-German family who in turn entrusted him to an institute for difficult children from where he was expelled at sixteen. Wild, unpredictable in his relationship with the world and reality to the point of calling him crazy. He was expelled in handcuffs from Switzerland upon complaint by his adoptive mother, and was sent to Italy, to ForkTieri, the father's city. His passion for painting led him to paint on the banks of the Po river, living like a savage in the woods and floodplains. In 1937, 1940 and 1945 he was often interned in the S. Lazzaro Psychiatric Hospital in Reggio Emilia for "manic-depressive psychosis". Only in 1961 was he recognized as a painter, with an exhibition in Rome and an anthology in Guastalla. Subsequently he was struck by a paresis of paresis which forced him immobile in bed. He died at the Carri di Gualtieri hospital on 27 May 1965. Since then, as often happens, his work became recognized and appreciated on a national scale.
For those wishing to delve deeper into the history of Ligabue and his works, it is possible to visit the Antonio Ligabue Museum by Gualtieri set up in the monumental rooms of Palazzo Bentivoglio in Gualtieri (RE)