55. Veliero all’ormeggio, 1958, oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm, signed and dated lower left “A. Catarsini/ 1958”, Montecatini, Daniele Pazzaglia Collection. On the reverse is a handwritten inscription and label: “Painter Alfredo/ Catarsini/ Viareggio via Dandolo, 10”.

Both works, exhibited here for the first time, come from the Montecatini collection of Daniele Pazzaglia. They attest to the family’s appreciation for the Viareggio painter, which is also confirmed by some of his letters from the early 1960s addressed to Dr. Aldo Pazzaglia, a frequent visitor of artists and art critics. Dr. Pazzaglia, along with his brother Fernando, had chosen Viareggio as a vacation destination in the late 1950s. Both art enthusiasts immediately settled in the “Casa dei Pini” guest house with Mity Catarsini, forming a deep relationship with the painter. Traces of this relationship remain in a small collection of paintings and in their handwritten correspondence, where Catarsini recounted his progress within the difficult artistic scene of those years. (1)

In the first painting, the artist portrays himself frontally, wearing sunglasses and a white and blue striped shirt, not without references to Picasso’s iconography. Undated, this small cardboard piece can be usefully compared to a 1956 work of similar size and technique, previously exhibited in the 2023 Florentine show dedicated to his numerous self-portraits. (2)

Less restless and tormented in its line than the latter, but more solid in its execution, the Montecatini oil painting shows the artist in a beach setting, slightly balding and with a serious and introspective expression made more enigmatic by the dark sunglasses.

A selection of self-portraits is now being presented in the initial section of the exhibition, in the atrium of the MO.C.A. This selection documents the evolution of Catarsini’s artistic journey and his complex, multifaceted personality in a genre he cultivated throughout his career, interpreting it with remarkable expressive variety through different graphic and pictorial methods.

His technical and figurative research during the 1950s was also stimulated by the neorealist climate and his underlying expressionism. This led him to create paintings where the emotional aspect, often conveyed by the vibrant colors, is rationalized by the compositional structure.

This can be seen in some of his Viareggio subjects, especially his beloved views of the harbor and canals, such as Veliero all’ormeggio (Sailing Ship at Anchor) from 1958. This work is firmly structured on the horizontal lines of the quay and the roofs of the houses across the canal, as well as on the vertical lines of their walls and the rigging of the boat, which appears to lean on the pier. This effect is achieved through a low-horizon perspective that reduces the depth of the view.

The oblique lines of the two-masted ship’s rigging intersect the volumes of the houses, creating a complex vision where color takes on a material consistency. This is also thanks to the tonal effects of lighter colors advancing over darker ones, and to the bold, vibrant brushstrokes. The absence of human figures increases the sense of unease conveyed by the silent landscape, which is dominated by the striking appearance of the sailing ship.

(1) I thank Daniele Pazzaglia for the precise information provided above and for lending the two paintings on display.

(2) L’artista allo specchio. Alfredo Catarsini: autoritratti dal 1930 al 1985, edited by R. Bona, Florence, Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, January 17-February 17, 2023, entry no. 12, p. 55.