Composition

Daphne Maugham, niece of the famous writer Somerset Maugham, began to study painting in France adhering to the post-impressionist movement. After moving to Italy in 1925, she became a pupil of the great Casorati, who she later married and from whom she had a son, also a painter. If Felice Casorati is a sublime and atypical figure of the Italian artistic world, his wife Daphne articulates her own vast sensitivity in following the strokes of her husband in a more gentle way. Both have the ability to offer a clear view of the world, starting from domestic life yet reaching a subtle metaphysical abyss. The work that we see here represents Daphne’s talent well. A cup of coffee, a box of colors, a plate decorated with gentle colors, and a breakfast bowl with a splendidly blue interior. A roll of large sheets of paper, perhaps archived drawings, perhaps plans of a new creation. The mutual dialogue between the elements of the painting puts every detail in a position both isolated yet capable of reflecting the whole. This is the virtue of the Casorati: to trace universal harmony from an infinitesimal particle, and to represent it as thus.