Ubaldo Oppi, La sera romagnola (An Evening in Romagna), 1925

Painted in 1925, La sera romagnola depicts a young, half-dressed girl towering over the dry landscape in the background like a goddess, marking a significant moment in the artist’s rise within the ‘Novecento Italiano’ group. For the composition, the artist drew inspiration from a photograph published in 1907 in ‘L’Étude Académique’, a Parisian photographic repertoire from the early twentieth century (see the image below).

When the painting was exhibited at the First Exhibition of Twentieth-Century Italian Art in Milan in 1926, there were immediate cries of plagiarism. Artists and critics took sides for or against this use of photographic images as a source of inspiration, and many were even invited to express their views in a public referendum, an event that contributed to the work’s everlasting fame.

UBALDO OPPI

(Bologna, 1889 - Vicenza, 1942)

La sera romagnola (An Evening in Romagna), 1925

Oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm.