Le demon du jeu

This panel, along with Le coup de foudre, was part of the series of decorative panels commissioned in the summer of 1928 from Severini by Léonce Rosenberg for the penultimate room of the new representative apartment that the Parisian art dealer-publisher was repurposing with the intention of making it a true “temple of taste” and a permanent exhibition of the major artists associated with the Galérie de l’effort moderne, which he had opened in 1918.

The commission called for the creation of a cycle of six canvases, of which only four are known today: the two, purchased by the state with the right of first refusal in 2007 and destined for the Pinacoteca di Brera, L’equilibriste, the only one in square format, and Lecon de musique, the latter now untraceable, were made in Rome between December 1928 and January 1929.

Rosenberg had asked Severini for classical landscapes inhabited by mythological characters, but the Italian artist proposed replacing the pseudo-anthropic figures with masks of Italian comedy more congenial to him, modern Italian-style whimsy, dominated by the antique, in which are mixed with great craftsmanship, the à plat of the avant-garde, still life, the dark red of Pompeian encaustic painting, and the theatricality of deus ex machina.

The recent purchase of Severini’s panels fits well into the Pinacoteca di Brera’s collections of twentieth-century painting, which in recent years has acquired two other works related to the Rosenberg apartment project at No. 35 Rue Longchamp: the Course des quadrigues – purchased 1998 – created by Giorgio De Chirico for the dining room and the La cité des promesses – purchased 2004 – by Alberto Savinio for another of the rooms in the refined apartment.

This panel is signed at lower right G. Severini.