La Guirlande, 1970
GPO-0200
Photo emulsion on canvas
40 x 55 cm
Titled, signed, and dated on the verso, lower stretcher bar, centre: “ “La Guirlande” Giulio Paolini / 1970”
Fondazione Giulio e Anna Paolini, Turin
Gift of Anna Paolini Piva, 25 October 2012, archive no. GPO-0200
The photograph taken by Paolini in the studio of Auguste Renoir in Cagnes-sur-mer in 19691 reproduces Anna Piva, future wife of the artist, adorned with drapes and flowers, as if she were posing for the master, who in the self-portrait on display to the right of the easel is portrayed while he paints.
The title harks back to that of a work by Jean-Philippe Rameau (La Guirlande ou Les fleurs enchantées, 1751).
1 This was the only time the artist personally took the photograph used for the work.
Portrait of Anna Piva in Auguste Renoir’s studio, Cagnes-sur-mer, taken by Giulio Paolini, 1969.
| 2003 | Milan, Fondazione Prada, Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, 29 October - 18 December, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 403, repr. p. 311. |
| • | G. Paolini, Suspense. Breve storia del vuoto in tredici stanze (Florence: Hopeful Monster editore, 1988), repr. p. 231 (erroneously dated "1971"). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 200 p. 211, repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Del Bello ideale, exhibition catalogue, Milan, Fondazione Carriero (London: Koenig Books, 2019), repr. vol. 2 p. 26. |
| • | V. Fumagalli, Sguardo e memoria. Le corrispondenze tra Giulio Paolini e “Le Cygne” di Charles Baudelaire (Rome: Fondazione Mario Luzi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 150. |
