Watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/renato-guttuso-1234" aria-label="More by Renato Guttuso" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Renato Guttuso</a>
Campieri
Purchased 1950
animals: mammals
guard
history
horse
Italian
military
nationality
politics and society
protests and unrest: Italy, 1945-48
riding
society
transport: land
work and occupations
paper unique watercolour
Campieri
support: 521 × 689 mm
Purchased 1950
<strong>Renato Guttuso</strong> born 1912 [- 1987]
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<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guttuso-campieri-n05948" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05948</span></a> <strong>Campieri</strong> 1949
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Inscribed 'Guttuso 49' b.l. and 'Guttuso | 49' br.<br/>
Watercolour on paper, 20 1/2 x 27 1/8 (52 x 69)<br/>
Purchased from the artist through the Hanover Gallery (Knapping Fund) 1950<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> <em>Renato Guttuso</em>, Hanover Gallery, London, June-July 1950 (not in catalogue)<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Mario De Micheli, <em>Guttuso: L'Occupazione delle Terre</em> (Milan 1970)
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The artist wrote (letter of 20 August 1953): 'These men on horseback in the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> you own are called in Sicily "campieri" and are the men who, dependent on the barons and great landowners of Sicily, control the vast uncultivated lands of the <em>latifondo</em>, a feudal abomination of our backward economy.'
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It is from a series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>, studies and large and small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvases</span></a> executed from 1946 to 1950 inspired by one of the great popular movements in the aftermath of the war: the occupation by thousands of poverty-stricken Sicilian peasants of the uncultivated areas owned by the feudal landowners. It was a mass incursion, mainly on foot, of men, women and children. The landowners retaliated, especially in 1948, by taking various kinds of legal measures, by using the campieri to intimidate the peasants, and even by violent repression and assassinations carried out by the Mafia. Guttuso, who made many visits to Sicily at this period and took part in some of the peasants' marches, brought this series to a climax with a large <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of 1949-50 (to which this watercolour is not directly related) entitled 'The Occupation of the Uncultivated Lands in Sicily'.
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<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.349, reproduced p.349


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Catalogue entry
2004-09-14T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: mammals guard history horse Italian military nationality politics and society protests and unrest: Italy, 1945-48 riding society transport: land work and occupations