Portofino in Portobello.

For many people it is not easy to find original and valuable artworks at an open air market. Just in the Ladbroke Grove and Golborne area on some Fridays hundreds of framed pictures can be stacked up amongst the stalls at Portobello Road Market, many of them worthless prints. Occasionally frames are the most valuable, although often requiring restoration. It helps quite a bit to have some aesthetic taste, some knowledge in art history, and above all a good magnifier. It also helps to have been a neighbour (laborally speaking) of the traders for some time. Sometimes they offer you pictures that they think might be of interest for you. In other cases, they warn you that they bring more stuff in the van.

That's precisely what happened the 7th February 2020, when I found a beautiful watercolour stained with mould in a ruined frame. The stall holder let me know, and I was able to find that little treasure hidden in his van piled up among several dozen dirty frames. This time the watercolour ‘hunted’ was a landscape by a skilled Italian artist named Aldo Cimberle (1911-1996). The original painting, size 180 x 240 mm, was dated ‘1990’, titled ‘Portofino’, and signed ‘Cimberle Aldo’ lower left.

I still find it fascinating that, while Bulgari adorned its stylish New Bond Street shop windows with a mosaic of posters advertising its jewellery creations with the slogan "Colori a Portofino, extravaganza in riviera", and with a drawing of its small and colourful port, a display window that had already attracted my attention, I found an original watercolour with those same colourful facades.

In Cimberle's watercolour, as in the Bulgari advertising, the real protagonist is colour. In the painting, the artist perfectly captures the vibrant palette of this picturesque Italian fishing port on the Italian Riviera. The colourful facades of the buildings lining the shore, the small boats moored in the foreground, or the natural promontory of Portofino Bay in the background, are the subjects depicted in the watercolour. Because of its photogenic façades, the port of Portofino has always attracted many artists among its visitors.

A stamped label glued to the back panel let me know about the provenance: “Galleria D’Arte San Giorgio s. a. s. & C. di Dr. Giorgio Bordon. Piazza Della Magnolia 2, 16034 Portofino, Italy. 1990. (tel: 0185 269269). ‘Artista: Cimberle Aldo. Titolo: Portofino. Tecnica: Acquerello. Formato: 18 x 24 cm. Anno: 1990’.”

But who is Cimberle Aldo? What role did his painting play in the contemporary art scene?

Aldo Cimberle was an artist born in Turin on April 21, 1911. His love for drawing has manifested since childhood. Recalling that time, the painter once said: "I used to draw and colour battles inspired by the pages illustrated by Achille Beltrame for Domenica del Corriere". When he was just 13 years old, the young Aldo was already cycling along the paths on the Turin hillsides, always carrying his easel and his colour box.

From a very young age he attended the studio of Alfredo Ortelli, official illustrator of "L'Illustrazione del Popolo". Between 1924 and 1931 he attended, with great profit and mentions, the evening ornamental and figure courses at the S. Carlo Professional Schools and in the meantime he began his activity as a lithographic designer, sketch artist and poster designer.

After his military service, he was sent to Somalia and Ethiopia to follow the troops conquering the Empire and, in 1940, he was again called to arms in Libya for the "North Africa Campaign". He was immediately taken prisoner by the British and interned for 5 years in a concentration camp in Egyptian territory near the Suez Canal, where he managed to paint among the fences. Even his jailers appreciated his artistic skills and sent him with other Italian artists, fellow prisoners, to Cairo at the Welfare Arts Studios, where he taught drawing to the English RAF officers and made paintings for the English canteens.

He finally returned to his homeland in 1946 and opened his own graphic design studio. Until the late 60s he also worked as an illustrator, producing children's books and covers for school notebooks, ranging his activity in the advertising and commercial field. A member of the Promotrice di Belle Arti since 1953, he took part in the annual social exhibitions and, in 1954, he inaugurated his first personal exhibition at the Saletta "Gissi" in Turin; before countless other personal exhibitions in the leading galleries in Turin and Italy. He was a member of the Piemonte Artistico Culturale since 1959, and was invited to join the Italian Watercolourists Association of Milan.

Once he stopped working as a graphic designer, he concentrated on his artistic career painting both 'en plein-air' and in his quiet house-studio in Borgata Parella. He made several trips around the world (Black Sea, Senegal, Morocco, Israel, the Alps, the beauties of Normandy and Brittany...) from which he drew inspiration and impressions for his works. Named by his friends and critics as 'il Poeta della Natura', always literally wandering between seas and mountains, transmitting peace and beauty in every season. Among his favourite inspirational destinations stands out Paris with its crowded bistros, Venice of which he loves the reflections of the canals and the masks of its carnival and the snowy mountains where the expert art of watercolour reaches extreme qualities. Cimberle died on March 27, 1996, and is buried in Turin's Monumental Cemetery. Twenty years later, in March 2016, the city of Turin dedicated him an anthological exhibition at Palazzo Barolo. His artistic work has been offered at auction multiple times.

There is no doubt that Aldo Cimberle was a terrific watercolorist. In the next posts we will be bringing to this blog other artworks in this same medium, all of them found at the Portobello Road market or in charity shops in England. On November 23rd, World Watercolour Day, we will bring here another exceptional artist, in order to celebrate such a special day.

Posthumous exhibition:

-Anthological Exhibition of the Turin painter Cimberle Aldo at Palazzo Barolo, Via delle Orfane 7. 10122 Torino. 1-20 March 2016.

Literature references:

-Guida ragionata delle Belli Arti. Annuario n. 20. Comed 1993. AUTORE: Paola Ingoglia, Claudia Ferraresi. EDITORE: Comed Edizioni d'Arte Milano (Italia).ANNO DI PUBBLICAZIONE: 1993. EDIZIONE: n.20. Libro allegato.

-La Francia in Acquarello. Aldo Cimberle. Publisher: Berman Palazzo Tirrena, Torino. Publication date: 1994.

-Aldo Cimberle. Torino sotto la neve. Berman, Arte Figurativa. Torino 1988.

-Aldo Cimberle. “Su e zo per i ponti…”. Tra luci e maschere a Venezia. Berman, Arte Figurativa. Torino. 1990.

-“Torino com’era…”. Aldo Cimberle. Galleria Berman. 1997.

-Aldo Cimberle: “Torino com’era…”. Galleria Berman, Mostra Postuma. 1998.

Aldo Cimberle at auctions:

The artist’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, reaching prices of up to $300 (USD), depending on the size, medium and quality of the artwork.

-Auction-Exhibition of 19th, 20th and contemporary paintings. 104ª Saint Augustine, Turin. Auction display from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 March 2009. Auction Monday 30th March 2009.