Tending the Horses

Executed in 1916, the canvas is part of a series of paintings, drawings and engravings by Anselmo Bucci on the theme of war; it depicts the moment of the day when the troops look after their horses. The scene takes place at sunset: the red sun casts long shadows over a vast flat area and the soldiers’ raised arms are silhouetted against the horizon. In 1915, the artist had enrolled in the Volunteer Cyclist Battalion along with Umberto Boccioni, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Mario Sironi, Achille Funi and Antonio Sant’Elia. He had left for the war after a long period in Paris, where he had developed the studies undertaken with Cesare Tallone at the Brera Academy. During his lengthy stay in France, Bucci had had the opportunity of studying the Symbolist works of the Nabis, the intensely vivid colours of the Fauves, and the scenes of modern life depicted by the Impressionists and Toulouse-Lautrec. In those years, he had begun to paint crowd scenes and places swarming with people in motion – the dominant theme of Tending the Horses.The war was still on when Bucci was discharged and, like other artists such as Aldo Carpi, Arrigo Renato Marzola and Michele Cascella, he worked for charity associations that helped the combatants and their familes. Tending the Horses, in particular, was exhibited to raise funds for the “Comitato di Provvedimento ai Combattenti, Commissione per gli Indumenti” in Genoa and for “Opera Nazionale Scaldarancio” at the Galleria Pesaro in Milan.