La punta di Pallanza

Daniele Ranzoni’s few, sporadic landscapes have as theme Lago Maggiore, where the artist was born and lived. In this intense view of the lake, Ranzoni offers a sample of his refined sensitivity to light and colour. The painting dates to his last years (he died in 1889).
The slightly clouded sky glides over silvery waters. Pallanza Point juts obliquely out into the lake, caressed in golden tones by a horizontal light that hugs the ground. Ranzoni already displays an intuitive division of colour, which he had learned in his early years at the Albertine Academy in Turin under Antonio Fontanesi. Making the most of this teaching, Ranzoni achieved extraordinary effects of light, with results resembling those of the Divisionists.
Note the plastic relief of the greenish, house-dotted lakeshore, an effect that the artist obtains through the contrast between this dark mass and the blue background of the cloud-streaked sky. The shimmering arpeggio of the waters in the foreground draw the viewer’s eye into the perspective, ending with the delicate vision of the hill in the far right corner.