Carlo Pellegrini

Italian painter, drawer and illustrator Carlo Pellegrini won the gold medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games in the Art Competitions, category Paintings with his work Winter Sports. This was the only medal awarded to a painter in Stockholm. Living in Switzerland since 1900, Pellegrini often painted winter scenes, which he also did for his winning work in the 1912 Olympics, after being invited by Pierre, Baron de Coubertin.

Pellegrini studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milano. In 1900, he immigrated to Switzerland. Pellegrini produced numerous postcards and posters on sport and winter landscapes. In addition, he painted landscapes, especially Engadin winter landscapes and portraits. He worked mainly in oil and tempera. In 1917 he returned to his Italian hometown. Prior to his death he donated his gold medal to the local fascist committee.

The submitted work was a triptych of three wall friezes. For a long time the complete work was unknown, until 2009 when three chromolithographs were auctioned at Christie’s. The three parts were titled: “Curling - Chess on Ice”, “Ice Dance” and “Winter Begins”. All of them are 23 - 24 cm high, the two outer ones a good 1 m wide, the middle one 60 cm. The identification of the middle piece is especially questionable, since the description published in the Revue Olympique of 1912 mentions ice climbers as well. All lithographs were published by Vouga & Cie. in Geneva. At the auction, together they sold for just under 4,200 British pounds (at the time about 3,730 euros). Whether the original works had the same format as the reproductions is unknown. It is possible that they were destroyed in a major fire at the publishing house together with numerous other originals.