Cesare Sofianopulo - The Oxygenated (1934)

oil on canvas , 98 x 69 cm
Signed lower left: "Ch. Sofianopulos".
Signed lower right: "Caesar Ch. Sofianopulos - The Oxygenated V 27 XII XII"
Bibliography: B. M. Favetta, Cesare Sofianopulo, Trieste 1973, p. 192, no. 187.

Cesare Sofianopulo (Trieste, 1889 - 1968), born into a wealthy family of Greek origin, completed his classical studies in Trieste, but abandoned them in his second year wishing to pursue his artistic vocation.
The secessionist direction of his language is evident from his early works: between 1910 and 1911, he decided to continue his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
Shortly afterwards, he undertook a stay in Paris, where he came into contact with the leading representatives of the avant-garde culture of the time, including Amedeo Modigliani. Meanwhile, he studied at the Académie Julian, before returning to Munich in 1912, certain that the German environment was much more stimulating than the Parisian one.
At this point, Cesare Sofianopulo gave a complete turn to his training, attending the composition school of Franz von Stuck (1863-1928) and thus definitively approaching a strongly symbolist and allegorical thematic approach, based on a confident drawing and personal chromatism.
Defining himself a 'poetic pictor and a pingente vate', Cesare Sofianopulo inevitably flows into the Horatian ut pictura pöesis, establishing infinite correspondences between poetry and figurative art.