The Italian camp at the Battle of Magenta

This earlier study of the Battle of Magenta camp, painted in 1860 — one year before the larger definitive version held in the Galleria d'Arte Moderna — shows Fattori working through the compositional problems the subject presented before arriving at his final solution. The 1860 canvas is a working document in the development of one of his most celebrated images, and its differences from the 1861 version offer insight into his pictorial thinking. The subject — an Italian camp after a major victory of the independence wars — held deep significance, and Fattori's commitment to getting it right led him to multiple versions and extended pictorial labour.

As an earlier working version of the 1861 composition, this canvas shows Fattori testing compositional arrangements and tonal relationships before arriving at his final solution. The handling is more tentative in places, the tonal organisation less resolved. The palette and formal vocabulary are consistent with his Macchiaioli development of this period.