Born in Fontebuona near Florence on July 26, 1836 and died in Florence on May 23, 1886. After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, perfecting himself with the sculpture Aristodemo Costoli, in 1859 he interrupted his studies to participate in the Second War of Independence with the second battalion of the Tuscan Bersaglieri. Returning to Florence in 1860, he resumed his studies and approached the artistic movement of the Macchiaioli. In 1863 the Florentine Academy assigned him the coveted "place of study" in Rome, thanks to which in 1867 he could go to Naples and develop his artistic personality by freeing himself from academicism. The so-called “Resina school” was soon formed around him, attended precisely by young painters, including Marco De Gregorio, Giuseppe De Nittis and Federico Rossano, who he directed towards the direct study of nature according to the new direction initiated by the Macchiaioli. The works of these years, both small paintings (II task, The vigil, Mother and child, Child observing the light, private collections) and small terracottas (The pregnant wife, Naples, Capodimonte Museum), mainly concern interiors and domestic scenes, with the exception of a View of Naples (around 1865, Florence, Galleria d’Arte Moderna). In 1870 he moved to Paris for a year, as a guest of his friend De Nittis, thanks to whom he obtained the commission from the French painter Jean Georges Vibert of the marble version of a plaster group, The Child with the Rooster, modeled at the end from 1868. The work is admired at the Salon of 1870 and was purchased by the American merchant Stuart for multiple bronze reproductions. The following year he moved to London, where he worked for about a year as a caricaturist for the periodical Vanity Fair. In 1873 he collaborated with Diego Martelli and Telemaco Signorini in the publication of the Art Journal, inserting numerous critical writings on the Macchiaioli and his adherence to the realistic ideology influenced by the example and ideas of Courbet (among the most advanced realism works, the "Scandalous" Dog defecating and Laundress). Among the other most significant sculptures of the last decade are the plaster casts A surprise for the stairs and The mother, both presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Turin in 1880; the second, now in the Gallery of Modern Art in Florence, inspired an ode to Carducci. In 1883, at the International Exhibition in Rome, the National Gallery of Modern Art of that city bought a bronze version of A surprise for the stairs. The following year he was appointed by the Ministry of Education as master of drawing at the higher institute of female teaching in Florence, a position he held until his early death, which took place in Florence two years later.

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