CARLO LEVI

Urban and rural landscapes are fundamental components of the production of Carlo Levi, exemplified by a series of paintings inspired mainly by places the artist frequented: Turin, Alassio, Paris, Aliano, Florence and Rome, cities and towns that “spoke to his heart”, panoramas with which Levi felt an intense emotional bond.
In one of his most interesting pictorial periods, he painted many views of Paris. He depicted it with a silent, fantastic atmosphere, with a distinctly poetic mood that reminds one of De Chirico but also with touches the painter borrowed from his knowledge of Marquet and Dufy’s work.
Controlling the spatial relationships and using a light, almost impalpable brushstroke, he here depicts one of the most celebrated of Parisian monuments, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. He defines the view with a series of diagonals, centering the Cathedral in the distance between wings: the stalls with their overhanging roofs to the right and the dark building to the left.
The artist’s profound love for France and Paris will endure for many years. It sprang from his youthful training as a writer, his early readings and the role that Paris played following the First World War, as the global hub of culture and modernity, as well as its destination as a refuge for Italian political exiles.