(Bergamo 1848 - Cremona 1905 )
ATTENTA, ante 1882
Etchings. Mezzetti 175. Four different impressions.
A: artist proof, before letters and much etched work. Printed with black ink on thick wove paper. Inscribed in pencil at bottom right 19 luglio. To the platemark 360 x 450 mm, the entire sheet measuring 450 x 577 mm.
B: artist proof, before letters and before other etched work. Printed with black ink on thick wove paper. Signed in pencil at bottom right Colombi Borde pinxit. To the platemark 360 x 448 mm, the entire sheet measuring 650 x 805 mm.
C: final state, with letters: F. COLOMBI-BORDE DIS ED INC. / Calc. Gastaldi Torino / ATTENTA / La Società per le Belle Arti - Esposizione Permanente 1898. Printed in black ink on chine appliqué on thick wove paper. To the platemark 364 x 448 mm, the entire sheet measuring 475 x 695 mm.
D: final state, with letters: F. COLOMBI-BORDE DIS ED INC. / Calc. Gastaldi Torino / ATTENTA / La Società per le Belle Arti - Esposizione Permanente 1898. Printed in sepia ink on chine appliqué on thick wove paper. To the platemark 364 x 448 mm, the entire sheet measuring 475 x 695 mm.
Minimal defects.
The author, with this work, participated and won a competition held in 1882 by the Ministry of Education to promote the use of etching. For this reason a dating to c. 1882 is preferred to the Mezzetti dating to 1898, founded on the date of publication by La Società per le Belle Arti - Esposizione Permanente.
Colombi Borde worked in Milan and Cremona from the early 1870s, initially as a portraitist and painter of interior views. In the following years and up until the end of the century, he was also present at Milanese exhibitions with etchings, genre paintings and landscapes.