Clark Van Clemenson (1910- ?), Beautiful Island on Lake Maggiore

Clark Van Clemenson (1910- ?)

Beautiful island on Lake Maggiore

oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm

with frame, 122 x 182 cm

signed lower right C. Clemenson

The painting in question shows a splendid view of Isola Bella, one of the so-called Borromean Islands, which is reflected in the waters of Lake Maggiore. In the foreground is the small beach where two small boats are docked and the scene is animated by a girl, the only human presence in the entire painting. High snow-capped mountains embrace the island and the lake. The oil on canvas is, as can be seen from the signature at the bottom right, the work of the painter Clark Van Clemenson, born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1910. The date of his death, however, is unknown.

Until 1630, Isola Bella was a rock inhabited by fishermen, with two small churches and some vegetable gardens. The Borromeos, already owners of Isola Madre since 1501, from the first twenty years of the seventeenth century with Julius Caesar III and Charles III decided to concentrate their interests on this new island, starting the grandiose project that will lead to the creation of the Palace and the garden Italian, clearly recognizable in the painting.

The Borromeo Palace, whose 80 meter long façade dominates the northern end of the island, was built throughout the seventeenth century and has a T-shaped plan with a curved protrusion in the center corresponding to the hall of honor.

The surrounding garden was built from around 1631 to 1671. The Teatro Massimo, visible in the distance behind the Palace, is the most important monument of the Isola Bella garden: statues, obelisks and fountains integrate perfectly with the vegetation of the ten spectacular terraces, on top of which stands the statue of the Unicorn, symbol heraldic symbol of the Borromeo family.

The pastel shades used by the artist instill in the viewer a sense of quiet, calm and inner peace, which make the island a sort of locus amoenus. The pictorial rendering is particular: The small beach in the foreground as well as the foliage or the snow-capped mountain peaks are characterized by an extreme pictorial materiality, so much so that the color in these points is not perfectly spread but rather left deliberately in relief giving a particular texture to the painting. Other portions of the painting such as, for example, the body of water or the boats are treated by the painter by smoothing the color and juxtaposing the color with strokes of the brush or spatula without describing them in detail but ensuring that the image defines itself from a distant vision from the canvas.