Private Collection, Europe

Very Good Condition. Original canvas. The surface is clean. Under UV light, the varnish is somewhat hard to read through but besides a small spot near upper center edge, there is no apparent inpainting.
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Painted circa 1950, Cavalli antichi is a magnificent example of the subject of horses on the beach, which is a pivotal theme of de Chirico's oeuvre, and to which he returned frequently during his prolific career.  Born in Volos, Greece from Italian parents, Giorgio de Chirico was surrounded by images of antiquity since early childhood. Classical mythology, history and architecture provided an 🍸endless source of inspiration for the artist, who combined these subjects with the contemporary setting, to create images of a mystical, dream-like quality.

In the 1920s de Chirico abandoned his early Surrealist style, which had a great influence on the group of artists gathered around André Breton, and in turning to the classical world as a new source of inspiration, he embraced the new avant-garde trend led by Pablo Picasso's neo-Classical period. Figures of horses and ruins on a beach, such as in Cavalli antichi, replaced the enigmatic piazzas of his early surrealist compositions, while still retaining a mystical, dream-like character. In turning to this new subject, de Chirico was able to recreate the timeless quality of the classical world that had fascinated him since his early years. Although his turning to classical antiquity was partly influenced by the rappel à l'ordre prevalent ༒in the years after World War I, de Chirico used these elements in a highly individual and innovative manner, creating one of the most original bodies of work in twentieth century art. 

According to James Thrall Soby, there were three principal factors underlying de Chirico's return to classicism, "The first of these was his absorption in the art of the past, stimulated by his postwar studies in the great museums of Rome and Florence and by his discussions with Nicola Lochoff. The second may well have been his regard for Picasso who, beginning in 1917, had alternately painted classical-realistic pictures and abstract works. Picasso's neo-classic paintings and drawings undoubtedly were known to de Chirico. A third factor, accounting in good part for de Chirico's 1925-28 paintings of ancient ruins, gladiators and wild horses, was his enthusiasm for Sir James George Frazer's travel account of classical Greece, published in French in 1923 as Sur les Traces de Pausanias" (James Thrall Soby, Giorgio de Chirico, New York, 1966, p. 162).

Giorgio de Chirico was a master of the enigmatic and the mysterious. In Cavalli antichi, by placing the figures of two horses in an unidentified landscape, de Chirico creates an enigmatic world, verging between dream and reality.  Conspicuously devoid of human presence, the composition is populated by statuesque beasts whose elegance and poise give them an air of unreal, fairy-tale creatures, with their graceful poses reminiscent of classical equestrian sculpture. The portending sky that surrounds these mythical creatures creates a sense of urgency and highlights the timeless, metaphysical character of the image. &nbs🏅p;With the warm, flesh-like coloration of the hꩲorse in the front, and the colder, stone-like texture of the other one, they form a dynamic pair.  The crumbling ruins in the background create a link between the past and present,  a link that was not lost on the artist in his pursuit of rendering this oft-painted theme.

Fig. 1 Giorgio de Chirico in an undated photo🃏graph