La Solitudine

This painting contains all the elements of Giorgio de Chirico's signature style: a reclining classical figural sculpture, Ariadne, set in a deserted piazza, two loggia receding in the background, and a train crossing the canvas in the distant horizon between two fluttering pennants. Executed with a rich palette of yellows, greens, and browns and defined by bright light and shadows, De Chirico's imagery evokes nostalgia and mystery through the emptiness of seemingly urban spaces- unpopulated and dreamlike. The influence of his Greek and Italian heritage resonates in his architectural settings and their sculptural foils.

Born in Greece and educated in Germany, De Chirico moved with his mother to Paris in 1911, joining De Chirico's brother, also an artist, who had adopted the name Alberto Savinio. In 1912, De Chirico began to incorporate the figure of Ariadne into his paintings of Italian squares or piazzas. Notable among these paintings are Ariadne (1913), now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Soothsayer's Recompense (1913), in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Although executed on a much larger scale than the AMAM picture, these paintings share the same elements, including a sculpture of Ariadne, a train in the distance, its motion made prominent by curls of smoke, and deep shadows that articulate space. In 1913, De Chirico's friend, the critic Guillaume Apollinaire, described De Chirico's art as "metaphysical," a recognition of the enigmatic subject matter of much of the artist's work.

The AMAM painting was examined by scholar and curator William Rubin, who indicated that it was either made around 1915-and thus an early, experimental work-or is perhaps a 1920s recasting of this earlier style and subject matter, on which De Chirico's reputation rests today. De Chirico is known for returning to earlier imagery later in life, often repeating favorite subjects that had personal meaning for him. The train that appears in many of his works, for example, may refer to his father, a railroad construction engineer who died in May 1905. The AMAM collection includes four other works by De Chirico: a small but powerful self-portrait painted in 1935-37, a terra-cotta of a rearing horse, and two works on paper.