File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Ferrari Arturo, Chiesa e case.jpg

The painting was purchased on the antique market in 1968.

Ferrari devoted himself to a long series of naturalistic landscapes featuring views of the Lombard countryside, Olona and the outskirts of Milan as from the 1920s. Distinguished by intense luminosity and sketch-like execution, and possibly identifiable as a view of the canals on the outskirts of Milan, the work examined here belongs to this important group of paintings.

Ferrari abandoned the anecdotal taste characteristic of his best-known and most popular work in his maturity to focus on landscape painting from life in line with the coeval explorations developed in the late stage of Lombard naturalism. This change of creative direction coincided with decreased participation in the major national and Milanese exhibitions. Two solo shows were held at the Società del Giardino in Milan in 1924 and 1932 and a major exhibition at the Galleria Guglielmi, Turin, in 1931 presented by the landscape painter and art critic Marco Calderini.

Distinguished by their small format, quick execution and glowing effects of light, these works of Ferrari’s maturity are connected with his substantial activities as the author of sophisticated watercolours. (He was also one of the founders of the Lombard Association of Watercolour Painters in 1910.) The artist used watercolour in fact from the outset of his career in his life studies for landscapes and urban views. This vast corpus, which still awaits art-critical investigation, includes both completed works and quick sketches produced with a view to historical depictions. Examples in the Cariplo Collection include The Church of Santo Stefano in Borgogna, Milan, Fifteenth-Century Courtyard in Castiglione Olona and On the Old Road.