Galerie Canesso

03/06/2026

A significant acquisition, and one with a particular resonance for the gallery.

The Barber's Shop by the Master of the Blue Jeans — active in Lombardy during the second half of the 17th century — has entered the Collection Bemberg in Toulouse, acquired from our stand at TEFAF Maastricht 2026, alongside the still life by Bernardo Strozzi we celebrated here recently.

The corpus of the Master of the Blue Jeans numbers barely a dozen known canvases. It was assembled and first exhibited by Galerie Canesso in Paris and New York in 2010–2011, following the foundational scholarship of Gerlinde Gruber, and the artist's place in the history of European realist painting — alongside Cipper, Keilhau, and in the wake of Sweerts — is now firmly established. His figures, painted with quiet gravity and unflinching sympathy, belong to the same current that runs from Caravaggio to Ceruti: the great Lombard tradition of painting the humblest with the dignity of the overlooked.

The Barber's Shop came to the gallery as a work of the Neapolitan school — it was Maurizio Canesso who recognised its rightful author. Galerie Canesso is genuinely delighted that it has found a new home in the Collection Bemberg, an institution whose ambition for its 17th-century holdings is matched only by the beauty of its setting in the Hôtel d'Assézat.

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19/05/2026

Following on from yesterday’s International Museum Day, we are delighted to celebrate the arrival of this radiant still life by Bernardo Strozzi (1581–1644) in the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse — acquired from our stand at TEFAF Maastricht 2026.

Pink and white peonies in a glass vase, fruits and flowers rendered with a spontaneity and richness of touch that place this canvas among the finest works Strozzi ever painted in the genre. A Genoese master far better known for his figure paintings, his still lifes remain one of the more captivating chapters in the history of 17th-century Italian painting — a rediscovery that began in earnest only in the 1980s, and one that this acquisition brings beautifully into the light.

And a thought for this particular May: the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan has this month installed a blooming arrangement of peonies in celebration of Orticola — around a virtual version of the bouquet Strozzi committed to canvas some four centuries ago.

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Image 2 - Installation view, courtesy Fondation Bemberg.

06/05/2026

We are delighted to share this article published in Bilan Magazine, one of Switzerland's distinguished publications, on the acquisition of Woman Begging with Two Children by the Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst in Rancate, Ticino.

Our warmest thanks to the author, Etienne Dumont, for this attentive and generous account of a work that has accompanied the gallery for many years - the eponymous canvas around which the entire corpus of the Master of the Blue Jeans was first assembled, and whose provenance can be traced back with confidence to the Villa Airoldi in Albiate, Lombardy, as early as 1692.

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La peinture lombarde du «Maître à la toile de jean» était à vendre depuis longtemps dans une grande galerie parisienne.

30/04/2026

Two works shown at TEFAF Maastricht 2026 have entered the Collection Bemberg in Toulouse.

The first is a still life of exceptional quality by Bernardo Strozzi (1581–1644): a bouquet of pink and white peonies in a glass vase, with fruits and flowers — long considered among the finest works of its kind by this Genoese master, and now rightly described by Alexandre Lafore as one of his most accomplished, if not the most accomplished, in the genre.

The second needs no introduction to those who have followed our gallery's work: The Barber's Shop by the Master of the Blue Jeans, active in Lombardy during the second half of the 17th century. A masterpiece from the corpus assembled and exhibited by Galerie Canesso in Paris and New York in 2010–2011, it joins the Collection Bemberg as the first work by this artist to enter a French public institution.

La Tribune de l'Art - compte officiel has published a beautiful account of both acquisitions: https://www.latribunedelart.com/deux-nouveaux-tableaux-italiens-pour-la-collection-bemberg-a-toulouse?lang=fr

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19/04/2026

La Tribune de l'Art has published a beautiful account of the acquisition of Woman Begging with Two Children by the Pinacoteca Cantonale Giovanni Züst in Rancate, Ticino — the eponymous painting around which the entire group of the Master of the Blue Jeans was first assembled.

The article by Alexandre Lafore generously acknowledges the essential role of Galerie Canesso's research, exhibitions, and catalogues — noting that these remain reference works for the study of this still-anonymous Lombard master. We are grateful for this recognition, and delighted that the painting has found so natural a home: a museum close to the Italian border, whose collections include the great Caravaggesque works of Giovanni Serodine.

▷ https://www.latribunedelart.com/un-tableau-du-maitre-de-la-toile-de-jean-rejoint-un-musee-dans-le-tessin

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14/04/2026

A moment that calls for celebration.

Woman Begging with Two Children — the eponymous painting from whose distinctive indigo fabric the entire group took its name — has entered a public collection. The Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst has received this canvas as a generous donation from the Fondazione Dr. Joseph Scholz (Zürich), ensuring that a work of remarkable art historical significance is now accessible to all.

Described by Frangi and Morandotti as "a great, moved narrator of the sufferings of the humble," the Master of the Blue Jeans stands among the most compelling voices of 17th-century European realist painting — an anonymous Lombard artist whose quiet, unflinching empathy for the marginalised places him in the company of the finest painters of reality of his age.

It was around this very composition that Gerlinde Gruber first assembled and published the group in 2006–2007, before Galerie Canesso presented The Master of the Blue Jeans. A New Painter of Reality in Late 17th-Century Europe in Paris and New York in 2010–2011 — an exhibition that brought this anonymous master to international attention and firmly established his place in the history of art, and in the history of the Blue Jeans fabric.

To see the painting that gave a name to an entire body of work enter a museum is, for us, the most fitting outcome imaginable.

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26/03/2026

Already a week since we returned to Paris after a wonderful TEFAF 2026 edition.

Behind us, Giuseppe Bonito's The Painter's Studio — a composition in which an artist at his easel becomes, himself, the subject of an attentive audience. It was much admired and the parallel with TEFAF was magic.

Our warmest thanks to all who visited this edition. We look forward to welcoming you in Paris and Milan.

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19/03/2026

The final hours of TEFAF Maastricht 2026 - Galerie Canesso on Stand 360

Among the works we are most honoured to present this edition: Saint Simon the Apostle by Allegretto Nuzi (Fabriano, documented from 1346, died 1373) — a panel of rare refinement, and one of three gold ground paintings on view at stand 360 this week.

A native of Fabriano, Nuzi trained first in Siena in the circle of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, then in Florence alongside Maso di Banco and Bernardo Daddi, before returning to the Marches to forge a language entirely his own. This small panel distils that synthesis with extraordinary economy: the monumental yet softened figure, the vivid orange-yellow and red against gold, the drapery described with an essential, nuanced touch — and above all, a face constructed on geometric regularity yet alive with psychological intensity, the large dilated eyes carrying something of the tenderness Vasari attributed to Giotto's most sensitive pupils.

The panel is believed to derive from the lateral pilasters of the most ambitious polyptych Nuzi ever painted — executed around 1360 for the high altar of Sant'Agostino in Fabriano — and would originally have formed a pair with a Saint Jude Thaddeus, the apostles occupying the upper registers of a complex, multi-tiered structure unique among his known altarpieces.

TEFAF Maastricht closes today. We are grateful to everyone who visited stand 360 this edition.

📌 Tempera and gold on wood, 23.3/23.8 × 17.4/17.9 cm.

18/03/2026

Galerie Canesso - Stand 360, the final two days of TEFAF Maastricht are upon us

Among the works drawing visitors this week: The Barber's Shop by the Maestro della tela jeans, active in Lombardy during the second half of the 17th century. A quietly arresting canvas — the silent exchange of gazes, the modest objects rendered with precision, the threadbare clothes — painted with a gravity that borders on the poignant.

This striking work has been on loan to Il teatro del quotidiano. Giacomo Francesco Cipper "Tedesco" at the Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento last year, an exhibition that illuminated the taste for realism that flourished in northern Italy through the presence of foreign artists such as Cipper and Eberhart Keilhau.

We look forward to welcoming you at stand 360 for these last two days.

📅 14 – 19 March 2026
📍 MECC Maastricht, Netherlands
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> Maestro della tela jeans, (active in Lombardy, 2nd half of the 17th century)
The Barber's Shop. Oil on canvas, 150.5 × 115 cm.

17/03/2026

A painter at his easel. An elite audience watching.

A masterpiece unseen for decades. The Painter's Studio by Giuseppe Bonito is among the most significant rediscoveries we have had the privilege of presenting.

We invite you to experience it at stand 360.

📅 14–19 March 2026 · TEFAF / MECC Maastricht
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