Born in Verona on April 21, 1827 and died in Rome on March 31, 1902. After attending the gymnasium at the episcopal seminary of Verona for three years, he entered the Cignaroli Academy of the same city where he has, since 1842, Giovanni Caliari, who initiates him to the study of the figure. From 1845 he attended the Venice Academy for two years. In 1848, during the first war of independence, he took refuge in Bologna to escape the Austrian conscription. In 1849 he returned to Verona and here, except for a trip to Milan in 1851, during which he came into contact with Domenico Induno, he stayed until 1853, when, with the intention of updating himself and to escape the persecution of the Austrian police, he went to Florence with a letter of recommendation for the painter and restorer Gaetano Bianchi and for the painter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Giovanni Signorini, father of Telemachus. With the latter and with Odoardo Borrani he immediately became friends, becoming part of that group of Macchiaioli artists who met first at the Caffè dell’Onore in Borgo La Croce and then at the Michelangiolo café. In 1854 he presented three portraits and a genre painting (Harvest in Tuscany or The sick grape) at the Fine Arts Exhibition in Florence; the following year, at the Florentine Promoter, four other genre paintings (La disdetta di casa, Il magnetismo, La miseria, Una confidenza). His painting, initially based on academic genre subjects - interior settings with costumed figures, portraits and views - between 1854 and 1858 passes to the chiaroscuro taste of Macchiaioli ancestry: an example of this is L’Abbandonata , awarded in 1858 to the Promoter of Florence and praised by Diego Martelli, Porco nero against the white wall (1859), praised by Fattori, Florentine storytellers of the fourteenth century (1860), purchased by the king at the First National Exhibition in Florence, now at the Gallery of Modern Art of the Pitti Palace in Florence. The scenes of rural and everyday life painted on life in Viareggio, where he stayed from 1856 to 1861 (Viareggio, Contadine, Alla Fonte), in the Tuscan countryside of Montemurlo, near Prato (Porcile, Woman with a pig against the sole, Case a Lerici, 1858) and in the Gulf of La Spezia, where he worked in the two-year period 1859-1860 with friends of the Michelangiolo café, in particular with Cristiano Banti and Signorini (Viareggio, 1859; Case a Lerici, 1858; Studio di donna a Montemurlo, around 1861; Castiglion Fiorentino, around 1862: all four at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome; Quarries in La Spezia, Nuvola, Rustic courtyard, Florence, Modern Art Gallery of Palazzo Pitti; Remains of the church of San Pietro in Portovenere, 1860, private collection). With Banti he goes as far as Naples and then, in the aftermath of the battle (June 1859), to Solferino and San Martino, drawing notes in pencil or in oil (Reminiscences in the vicinity of San Martino). Also in 1859 he exhibited four works at the Florentine Promoter. In 1861, again with Banti and Signorini, he went to Paris, where he got to know the works of Decamps, Troyon and Corot. Returning to Florence in the same year, he exhibits the already mentioned and appreciated Florentine storytellers of the fourteenth century and some landscapes at the First National Exhibition (including Ferriera in Versilia), while in Turin a painting that he will replicate in later years achieves some success, The nuns. At the Florentine Exhibition of 1863 he exhibited five paintings, including Barca a tow, Mattino in the vicinity of Florence and Crepuscolo. In 1863 he moved to Parma, guest of the painter Cecrope Barilli, and there he married Adelaide, with whom he would settle permanently in Rome from 1870, at the invitation of Nino Costa. With the latter and together with Onorato Carlandi, Ettore Roesler Franz, Mario De Maria and Giulio Aristide Sartorio he will found the association "In Arte Libertas" (1886). A decade of wanderings followed: in 1870 he was in Venice, where he became friends with the Dutch painter Willem Martens, in 1873 he was in Castiglioncello with Federico Zandomeneghi, in 1874 he was again in Venice, in 1875 he was in Amalfi, in 1876 he was in Capri with Nino Costa. In 1876 he was one of the founding members of the Society of watercolors, a technique he had already experimented with in the Florentine years in which he specialized, making himself appreciated, among others, by Gabriele D'Annunzio and also enjoying particular success in London, where he returned in 1881 and 1882 and where he exhibited almost annually since 1874. In the years 1881-1888 he repeatedly stayed in Castiglioncello, near Diego Martelli. Left semi-paralyzed in 1893, he died in Rome on March 22, 1902. His works - presented at the main Italian and foreign exhibitions, such as London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Saint Louis, Paris and Munich - are preserved in many public and private collections, among which, in addition to those already mentioned, the Revoltella Museum of Trieste (The Napoleonic invalid who recalls his past memories or The Napoleonic legionary, 1856), the Fattori Museum in Livorno (The farewell, 1858), the Verona Hospital (The young Goldoni among the comedians in his first trip from Rimini to Chioggia, 1858), the Civic Museum of Castelvecchio di Verona (Quiet Life), the Modern Art Gallery of Palazzo Pitti in Florence (in addition to the works already mentioned, Palestrina, 1859; Pia dei Tolomei led to Maremma castle, 1860; Ruins in Portovenere, 1863; A bath among the rocks, 1868; Venice (closed church), 1868; Sun effect, 1868-1872; Nettuno, 1872; Strada a Palestrina, 1879), the Civic Gallery of Modern Art in Milan (Medieval scene, 1861), in the Civic Museums of Milan (Monachine by the sea, watercolor, 1869), the Modern Art Gallery of Turin (Woman at the window and Marina), the Raccolte Frugone of Genova Nervi (Beach in Viareggio, 1865), the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts of Genoa (The portico of San Zeno in Verona, 1867), the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome (The snow in Ciociaria (or Rocca di Papa), watercolor, 1886; The farm worker of the convent, watercolor, 1887; Sul far del giorno, watercolor, 1890), the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Rome (Once upon a time there was a church by the sea) and the Ricci Oddi Museum in Piacenza (Women on the bridge in Venice, 1869).

print

contact us

vedi scheda

Milano

Via Senato, 45

T +39 02 87 23 57 52

Mail: milano@enricogallerie.com

Genova

Via Garibaldi, 29 R

T +39 010 24 70 150

Mail: genova@enricogallerie.com

©2015 ENRICO Gallerie d'Arte - All Right Reserved - P.IVA 00985970094 | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Site Map