Sunrise of Lords in Lierna Lake Como

The Sunrise of Lords in Lierna Lake Como (also known as Alba dei Signori) is a 20th-century divisionism oil painting by the Baron Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, built on the shore of Borgo Villa in Lierna Lake Como in 1910.
Grubicy's painting is part of the permanent collection of the Giovanni Fattori Civic Museum of Livorno.. Grubicy's paintings are exhibited in the last room that closes the long central hall together with Pollastrini's "Gli esuli di Siena", with a single number and title: "5", "Triptych". The other works in the triptych are: "Alba di Lavoro" and "La Vela".
Museum
Civic Museum of Livorno (Inv. n. 157/513, 1991/1106)
Description
The work created on the shore of Lierna on Lake Como, a place that has always been frequented by the high European nobility and by Baron Vittore Grubicy de Dragon. Among the other aspects of Grubicy's art, the practice of "continuously returning to himself, therefore also to canvases that have already been painted for years" is underlined to better render the impression he had in front of nature and "the character in itself of the natural spectacle ". The work is in fact connected to a triptych, whose first work dates back to 1887, when he was 36 years old, while this painting dates back to 1920, when the Baron was 60 years old. The work is a reworking of his whole life, and is the last work done by Baron Grubicy de Dragon before his death.
The horizontal paintings "Alba di lavoro a Lierna" and "Alba di Signori a Lierna" were donated by the artist to the Municipality of Livorno in 1920, shortly before his death, with the explicit intention of placing them side by side with the painting "The sail in Lierna " to make up the triptych. A testament to their importance for the artist and his link with the ancient village of Lierna on Lake Como.
Color and Luminance
The Sun appears to be the brightest point on the canvas, but measuring its luminance with a photometer shows that Monet gave it the same luminosity as the sky around it. Margaret Livingstone, professor of neurobiology at Harvard University, points out that the desaturation of the colors of the canvas makes the rising sun and its reflection disappear. She also recalls that the fovea of the retina of the human eye distinguishes colors while the peripheral vision captures movements and shadows, which explains that when the gaze is turned away from the sun, the light intensity of the latter fades and peripheral vision gives it an indecisive appearance like at sunrise The colors are juxtaposed which gives the painting an unfinished appearance.
Reprise du theme par Monet
Le Baron Grubicy de Dragon reprendra le theme du soleil de Monet comme un point lumineux et son reflet, dans trois autres oeuvres :
Related pages
Lierna
Bibliography
Primo Levi, "L'Italico", Il fenomeno Grubicy nella vita e nell'arte, "Rivista politica e letteraria", october 1900, Livorno, Ed. Officine grafiche Chiappini, 1910
Il Trittico di Vittore Grubicy, in "Il Telegrafo", Livorno, 7 august 1920
Pinacoteca livornese, Elenco delle opere, Livorno, Ortalli, 1920
References
Other websites
Museo Civico Giovanni Fattori, Livorno, VITTORE GRUBICY DE DRAGON, Alba di lavoro; La vela; Alba di signori
Paintings by Vittore Grubicy de Dragon
1920s paintings