OTTONE ROSAI.

- Quarto [12-1/2 inches high by 9-1/4 inches wide], olive green cloth in a dust wrapper. The book is housed in a plain tan slipcase. The dust jacket spine is sunned and lightly creased and there is a break to the bottom edge of the slipcase. 262 pages plus 259 full-page illustrations, of which 148 are in color. Fine in a very good dust wrapper. A monograph on Italian painter Ottone Rosai [1895-1957]. Rosai was born in Florence, the son of a carpenter. After studying at the Instituto di Arti Decorativi and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, he adopted a Futurist idiom and his association with the Futurists lasted through World War I. In the early 1920s, his introduction to Cezanne by the Futurist Ardengo Soffici and his study of fourteenth-century Florentine painting, caused him to move from his earlier fragmented imagery to work in which the human figure, in its simplest form and displaying its innermost conflicts, became central. During World War I and after his father's suicide in 1922, Rosai was associated with militant Fascist groups. He took over his father's business and went through a time of great hardship during which he painted very little. However, in 1930 his work was seen outside Florence when he exhibited at the Milione Gallery in Milan and thereafter, despite economic difficulties, he dedicated himself to painting again, participating in group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennales of 1932 to1938.The text is in Italian.…