This could be a pendant to Travellers on a Snowy Path. The works are the same size and show thesame woman and two men traveling together. This scene of activity balances the calm determinatedpace of the traveler in the proposed pendant, whichis Foschi’s usual approach to paired works.
Francesco Foschi
The Oncoming Storm
Artist
Francesco Foschi
(Ancona, 1710-Rome, 1780 )
Details
Oil on canvas 119×170 cm
Provenance
London, Sotheby’s 1985 ; London with Alex Wengraf, LTD ; London withPaolo Brisigotti ; London,Private Collection
Ehibition
Ancona, Mole Vanvitelliana, Antonio Francesco Peruzzini, 1997. Monte-Carlo, L’Arte nella pittura,Monte-Carlo, 2001. Cortina d’Ampezzo (BL), Ciasa de ra Regoles, Francesco Foschi, 2003. Sestriere(TO), Neve sulla Neve. Paesaggi innevati del XVIII sec., February 2005.
Literature
Marietta Vinci, in Mina Gregori and Pietro Zampetti Ántonio Francesco Peruzzini exh. cat.(Ancona,Electa 1997) pp. 180-83, color ill. p. 181. M. Vinci, “Travellers on a Snowy Path”, in L’Arte nella pittura,exh. cat., Monte-Carlo, 2001, pp.94-97, color ill. p. 95; M. Vinci-Corsini in Francesco Foschi, exh. cat.,Milan 2002, Milan 2002, ed. Skira, p. 178, n. 69, color ill. pp. 84.
An ominous grey cloud threatens to impede the preparations for a journey that is the focal point ofthis large mature winter landscape. A man is loading his mule with his wife’s assistance. She is comingout of the modest stone thatched hut carrying a bundle on her head. Another man gathers wood atthe water’s edge, in front of the house.
A wooden outbuilding is visible behind the house, which is situated at a bend in the river. A dam inthe river and a large rock break its flow, adding turbulence to the foreground. The other side of theriver is sharply,mountainous. Leafless trees and scrub dot the otherwise bare rocks, whose massdominates the right side of the painting.
As the river winds around to the right, two hunters are visible, making their way across the snowyfields beyond the peasants’ hunt. Avariety of houses dot he snowy hills receding into the background,where a town is visible on the horizon.
Low dark clouds roll across the left side of the scene, Balancing the mountains. The movement of theclouds is palpable, adding a sense of urgency tothe scene.