The Rain in Wasmes

The painter Giuseppe Flangini (1898-1961) visited the places of those he considered his great masters, travelling to the Netherlands, Belgium and, particularly attracted by the works of the Impressionists, Paris. His favourite themes were the urban and mining landscape of the Borinage, industries, blast furnaces and the depiction of the hard work of miners, who were mainly Italian in those years. From the 1950s on, he deepened the expressionist style of his painting, and, at the same time, concentrated on the influence of the works of James Ensor, Maurice de Vlaminck and Vincent Van Gogh. In particular, his encounter with Van Gogh's paintings, whose places he revisited, profoundly marked him. Critics trace Flangini's happiest artistic season precisely to his travels in the North, where he seems to express himself best according to his personal inclinations. Witness to this artistic moment is the 1955 painting "The Rain in Wasmes".