Giorgio de Chirico
Les gladiateurs

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Giorgio de Chirico
Les gladiateurs, 1928
oil on canvas
116 x 88 cm │ 45 ½ x 34 ½ in.

Arbiter, beginning of the III century b.C., Vatican City, Musei Vaticani (from the mosaic from the Bath of Caracalla.

Giorgio de Chirico, Les gladiateurs, 1928. Detail. The arbiter is a clear reference to the ancient Roman era mosaic.

Giorgio de Chirico Chevaux devant la mer, 1926, detail.

Giorgio de Chirico Les gladiateurs, 1928, detail.

The central wall of the Hall des gladiateurs in Léonce Rosenberg’s apartment on Rue de Longchamp in Paris (from Vogue, 1929).

Léonce Rosenberg in his warehouse (after 1932). On the right the central picture of the Hall. Gladiateurs au repos, 1924.

Luca Signorelli, Dannati all’inferno, 1499-1502, fresco belonging to the cycle of the Storie degli ultimi giorni, Chapel of San Brizio (Cappella Nova), Cathedral of Orvieto.

The painting Les gladiateurs, which soon entered the collection of Léonce Rosenberg, was soon chosen for the artist’s first solo exhibition set up in the autumn of 1928 at Arthur Tooth & Sons, London. Later on it attracted the attention of Sydney Alfred Schiff, novelist, translator, patron, friend of painters and musicians, as well as art collector. Sir Edward Beddington-Behrens, member of the same family, was the following owner of the work. He was son of the President of the British Chamber of Commerce who served as Chairman of the British Committee of the European League for Economic Cooperation. Les gladiateurs appears here in Sydney Alfred Schiff’s house in London, in a photo published in L’arredamento moderno, Hoepli, Milan, 1936 by Roberto Aloi.