Ambron Emilio
His extraordinary skill of synthesis, representing the essence of reality, is never reduced into an inert academic style of figure drawing but its dynamic force comes from a profound cultural knowledge, derived from the best circles he frequented, that can be traced to the magical atmosphere of the places where he lived and to his unusual education. […]
Bacci Baccio Maria
Baccio Maria Bacci was born in Florence in 1888. He came from a family of artists but nevertheless his parents prevented him from studying art. This may be one of the reasons why he ran away from home when he was seventeen and went to Munich and later Nuremberg. Eight months later he returned to Florence and was advised to enrol at the Academy […]
Balduini Adolfo
Adolfo Balduini was born in Altopascio in 1881. The family emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina when he was twelve years old. It was there that the boy spent his youth and began studying art at the Vieja Sciedad Estìmulo de Bellas Artes under his teachers Reinaldo Giudici and Angel della Valle who in their turn had studied in Italy. […]
Balestrieri Lionello
Lionello Balestrieri was born in Cetona in 1872 into a family of humble origins. When his family moved to Rome he enrolled at the Istituto di Belle Arti and then at the same institution at Naples where he was taught by Domenico Morelli and, privately, by Gioacchino Toma. In 1897 he moved to Paris where he earned his living as an illustrator. […]
Bartolena Giovanni
Born in Leghorn into a well-off family, Giovanni Bartolena learned the rudiments of painting from his uncle Cesare, author of battle scenes and portraits. In 1886 he moved to Florence with the intention of continuing his studies under the guidance of Giovanni Fattori, but a busy and expensive social life kept him away from the academic studies. […]
Benvenuti Benvenuto
Born in Leghorn, after having received the first teachings from Lorenzo Cecchi at the Art and Trade school, around 1897 Benvenuti began to get closer to the Macchiaioli circles, taking an interest above all in the Adolfo Tommasi painting. His interest for the pointillism dates back to 1899 and became more specific in 1903 thanks to the essential meeting […]
Bucci Anselmo
Anselmo Bucci was born in 1887 in Fossombrone in the district of Pesaro. Even though he studied Classics, right from a tender age he showed a talent for drawing and, when his parents moved near to Florence, he was taught by the artist Francesco Salvini.
In 1904 the family settled in Monza and so the boy […]
Campriani Alceste
Alceste Campriani was born in Terni in 1848. He moved to Naples with his family and from 1862 to 1869 studied at the Regio Istituto di Belle Arti where he got to know Giuseppe De Nittis. During this period in Naples he distinguished himself in the 1869 test with his “Capodimonte”, later his work came stylistically closer to the Resina School […]
Cappiello Leonetto
Leonetto Cappiello was born in Leghorn in 1875. Right from his youth he was a self-taught artist, his earliest known works dating to 1889, his early drawings, presented at the Promotrice di Firenze of 1891 unfortunately are lost. In the same year Diego Martelli introduced the young Cappiello to the group of Leghorn artists […]
Caprini Eugenio
Eugenio Caprini was born in Leghorn in 1875.
He was a self-taught artist and when he was mature, like the other artists living in his town, he joined the Leghorn group, taking an active role in the Caffè Bardi meetings. Together with Gino Romito and Vinzio his work is similar to Divisionist art in style. […]
Cavaglieri Mario
Mario Cavaglieri was born in 1887 in Rovigo. He was born into a Jewish family whose native town was Venice. When he was nine the entire family moved to Padova and Cavaglieri was made to study Classics even though he showed a love of drawing and painting that led to him having private lessons. In 1906 he enrolled at the Faculty of Law […]
Celestini Celestino
Celestino Celestini was born in Città di Castello in 1882.
He studied art at Giovanni Fattori’s school – specialism of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze – and he was also his teacher. He became particularly interested in engraving and watercolour so that, in view of his talent, he was appointed professor at the Florentine Scuola di Incisione […]
Chaplin Elisabeth
Elisabeth was the niece of French painter Charles Chaplin. In 1900 her family moved to Italy, because of her father’s job, first to Piemonte and afterwards to the Italian Riviera. It was there, in Lagueglia, that Elisabeth started to teach herself to paint, with no formal training and only the advice of Albert Besnard. […]
Checchi Arturo
Arturo Checchi was born in Fucecchio in 1886. From a very early age he showed a talent for drawing and began to appreciate and love the Renaissance masters that Torello Bandinelli, his teacher at the technical college of his town of birth, encouraging him along the pathway of art, made known to him by showing him 19th century photographs […]
Chini Galileo
After he finished elementary school, Galileo Chini attended art school. When his father died, Chini began an apprenticeship with an uncle who was a restorer, at the same time enrolling in the Free School for Drawing Nudes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence in 1890. There he had the opportunity to get to know Plinio Nomellini […]
Colacicchi Giovanni
Born into a traditional catholic family, Giovanni Colacicchi began his studies in the seminary. At the end of the first World War, he moved to Florence, where he studied the first Renaissance painting, devoting himself at the same time to poetry. Around 1919, he began to take an interest in the landscape painting, which was a favourite subject […]
Corcos Vittorio Matteo
Born in Leghorn on 4 October 1859, in the 1870’s Corcos studied at the “Accademia delle Belle Arti di Firenze” under Enrico Pollastrini. Between 1878 and 1879 he was in Naples at Domenico Morelli’s studio whose work, rich in literary associations and formal ideas made a great impression on him. A work that illustrates Morelli’s influence […]
Crema Giovanni Battista
Giovanni Battista Crema was born in Ferrara in 1883 into a well-off family of solicitors. In order that the boy could follow in the footsteps of his family he was steered towards the study of Classics, however his father soon noticed the boy’s love of painting and when he was fourteen he sent him for drawing lessons from the master Angelo Longanesi […]
Dall’Oca Bianca Angelo
Angelo Dall’Oca Bianca was born in 1858 in Verona to a family from a humble background. In his biography written in 1897, Angelo describes his childhood until the age of fifteen as being spent in the streets of Verona and not at school. Then, because of the early death of his father he started work doing several short-term contract jobs […]
Daniele Arturo
Born in Lucca in 1878, after studying at the Liceo, Daniele decided to become a chemist but changed his mind a few years later. Some of his early works signed “A. Speziale” are from this period. Daniele’s career covered more than forty years. A self-taught artist, his education was based on the study of artists such as Domenico Morelli […]
Danielson Gambogi Elin
Elin Danielson was born on 3 September 1861 in Norrmark, a small village near Pori in the Gulf of Bornia. Her father, Karl, and mother, Amalia Rosa Gestrin, and their families were of Swedish origin and had been settled in Finland for several generations. Elin spent her childhood on her family’s farm in the country. […]
Dazzi Arturo
Among the most famous and appreciated Italian sculptors of the XX Century, Arturo Dazzi was also a figure, still life and landscape painter. He began, very young, as a stone mason and rough-hewer in the sculpture shop of an uncle; then, he enrolled at the Fine Arts Academy of Carrara, where his presence is documented until 1899 […]
De Servi Luigi
The son of an artist father, Pietro, who painted religious works, De Servi was “an artist who depicted the drawing room, upper middle class patronage, series of family portraits and portraits of famous people, moving from the Classical style of his early works to the Romanticism of his early maturity and the Realism of his maturity […]
Domenici Carlo
Carlo Domenici, a very popular painter in Tuscany, enjoyed considerable success during his long career. In 1911 he enrolled at the “Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze”, where he followed courses in drawing, etching and lithography. In 1915, when he was just seventeen, he exhibited at the “Società Amatori e Cultori” of Roma […]
Fanelli Francesco
After receiving his primary education in Leghorn, Fanelli enrolled in the Art Institut “A. Passaglia” of Lucca, where he studied from 1893 to 1897 under the guidance of Michele Marcucci and Luigi Norfini. After 1886 he took part in the circle of the young Leghorn painters, who were gathered around Silvestro Lega and, in Florence […]
Filippelli Cafiero
Born into a family of modest income in Leghorn, Cafiero Filippelli started working at a very young age, but still managed to gain his diploma at the Scuola d’Arte e Mestieri. Thanks to a scholarship he then went to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, where he got to know Giovanni Fattori and Galileo Chini […]
Gambogi Raffaello
When he was only 17, Gambogi received a grant from Livorno that allowed him to go to Florence in 1892, where he attended both the Academy of Fine Arts and Giovanni Fattori’s School for Drawing Nudes. In the same year, two of his pieces were accepted by the Fine Arts Society. He met Finnish artist, Elin Danielson, in the summer of 1896 […]
Ghiglia Oscar
Oscar Ghiglia was born in Leghorn in 1876. Following his father’s death, he spent his adolescence working part time for a low wage. From the end of the 90’s he studied at the ateliers of Manaresi and Guglielmo Micheli where he made lasting friendships with Llewelyn Lloyd, Anthony De Witt and Modigliani. […]
Ghiglia Paulo
Paulo Ghiglia was born in Florence in 1905, the son of the artist Oscar Ghiglia and brother of Valentino who was also an artist. It was because of his family that he began to be recognised as an artist with a painting that his mother sent to the Quadriennale di Roma, without his knowledge.
He was immediately drawn to portrait painting […]
Ghiglia Valentino
The older son of Oscar Ghiglia, Valentino taught himself to paint at home along with his brother Paulo, despite their father’s opposition to his sons taking up the profession of painting. So great was the two brothers’ love of the art, however, that the father decided to introduce them to painting. He said to them […]
Gioli Francesco
Born into a well-off family, he studied at the Accademia di Pisa with Annibale Mariani. Later he enrolled on Antonio Ciseri and Enrico Pollastrini’s courses in Florence. His early career was devoted to history and genre painting; at Florence he presented “Carlo Emanuele di Savoia che scaccia l’ambasciatore spagnolo […]
Gioli Luigi
Francesco’s younger brother, for a long time considered as being mediocre by comparison, is today acknowledged as being a cultured and coherent artist, even though he came to art rather late in life after studying law. He had no formal art training.
He lived with his brother and was influenced by him […]
Kienerk Giorgio
Born to an old Tuscan family, Kienerk began to study drawing and sculpture with the master Adriano Cecioni. At the age of only 17, he had the opportunity to show his works at the Florentine Promotrice show for new talent. When his teacher Cecioni died unexpectedly in 1886, Kienerk worked with Telemaco Signorini […]
Lega Achille
Achille Lega trained at a very early age in Florence basing his style on late Macchioli artists and around 1914 he studied in the atelier of Lodovico Tommasi. When he left the Accademia di Belle Arti, he became involved in the magazine “Lacerba” and, in 1916, he joined the Futurist movement and started to frequent the Giubbe Rosse caffé […]
Levy Moses
Moses Levy spent his first years of study at an Italian school in Tunis, after which the Levy family moved to Italy due to his mother’s frail health. In 1900, Levy enrolled in the Lucca Institute of Art, where Lorenzo Viani was one of his classmates. In Florence, they were often to be found together at the Academy of Fine Arts […]
Liegi Ulvi – Luigi Levi
Luigi Levi (alias Ulvi Liegi) was born in Leghorn into a well-off Jewish family. He first studied art with Carlo Markò and Luigi Corsi. At the beginning of the 80’s he moved to Florence in order to continue studying at the Academy. He became the friend and admirer of Telemaco Signorini and, later, of Giovanni Fattori, he was a visitor at Tommasi’s home […]
Lloyd Llewelyn
Born into a well-off family of Welsh origin, he started studying commerce but soon abandoned his studies. From 1894 to 1899 he studied in Leghorn in the studio of Guglielmo Micheli, a pupil of Fattori, alongside Modigliani, Romiti, Martinelli and Ghiglia. What he learned from Fattori and perfected in Florence where Lloyd moved […]
Lomi Giovanni
Left fatherless when he was only 6, Lomi was entrusted to the care of a peasant family living in Ardenza, in the province of Livorno. His love of nature and animals comes from his years in the country. As a young man, he was forced to work to support himself, and despite his passion for drawing, was not able to attend art school […]
Lori Amedeo Guglielmo
Born in Pisa, Guglielmo Amedeo Lori went to the grammar school there and, in 1887, enrolled at the “Istituto di Belle Arti di Lucca”. Between 1898 and 1899, with Antonio Discovolo, he spent a period at Giacomo Puccini’s house at Torre del Lago, where he met Ferruccio Pagni and Francesco Fanelli, who were founders together […]
Lucchesi Giorgio
Giorgio Lucchesi was born in Lucca in 1855. He studied at the Accademia di Belle arti di Lucca, where he was a pupil of Norfini. His career took off mainly in his hometown. At first he was attracted to subjects concerning landscapes and genre painting. Later he was fond of still life painting, perfecting his technique until it became […]
March Giovanni
Born in Tunisia in 1894 Giovanni March moved to Leghorn the hometown of his parents in 1908, after the sudden death of his father. Financial hardship forced him to try his hand at various professions including that of being a decorator. In about 1916-17, he was working on the decorations of some villas at Castiglioncello […]
Marfori Savini Filippo
Pupil of Domenico Morelli, he exhibited all over Europe: Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, Turin, Venice, Paris, Munich, London.
In 1916 he founded in Florence the International Academy of Painting and Graving. In the same year he was given the silver medal of the Belle Arti Society of Florence. […]
Meschi Alfredo
The “painter of Lucca” par excellence, Alfredo Meschi spent the whole of his life in the town where he was born every day painting its streets, squares and surrounding countryside in his typical pastels that were very well known in Lucca.
Right from an early age, Meschi showed a particular aptitude […]
Michahelles Ernesto – Thayaht
Of Anglo-Swiss origin, from his childhood Thayaht lived in Florence. In 1915, following a brief stay in Paris, he exhibited a series of abstract drawings in Florence, meeting Florentine Futurist artists. Thayaht’s work (his pseudonym is perfectly “bifrontal”, and can be read just the same in a mirror as it can normally) moreover is typical of the eclectic spirit […]
Michaelles Ruggero – RAM
Brother of the eclectic Futurist painter and sculpture Ernesto Michahelles (known as Thayaht), from an early age Ruggero showed a strong flair for painting. While he was studying at the Faculty of Chemistry, without telling his father, he studied under Marfori Savini copying old masters in the museums in Florence […]
Müller Alfredo
Born in Leghorn into a well-off family, when he was very young he moved to Florence where he studied under Giuseppe Ciaranfi and Michele Gordigiani at the Accademia di Belle Arti. In 1886, when he was just seventeen, he exhibited with Fattori, Lega, Adolfo and Ludovico Tommasi at the “Prima Esposizione di Belle Arti” in Leghorn […]
Natali Renato
When he was still a little boy, Natali began to draw and paint on his own, without any teacher or master. His first known paintings date back to 1898, and his first recognition came in 1903 with a silver medal from the Ministry of Education; then in 1905, he participated in the Venice Biennial. His passion for painting kept him […]
Nomellini Plinio
Plinio Nomellini spent his childhood in Livorno and Cagliari because of his father’s work. In 1875, Plinio attended the School of Art and Crafts in Livorno as well as Natale Betti’s classes in decorative illustration and figure drawing. Thanks to Betti’s efforts, he received a scholarship to go to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence […]
Prencipe Umberto
Born in Naples, Umberto Prencipe grew up in various cities because of his father’s work as a prison manager. When the family settled in Rome for a short period he studied at the technical college, later, in 1897, enrolling at the Accademia di Belle Arti. In the same period he also studied at the studio of the Russian artist Stepanoff […]
Renucci Renuccio
Coming from a well-off family Renucci was born in Leghorn and when he was eighteen got to know the artist Ugo Manaresi. He decided to leave his father’s thriving shipping business to dedicate his time completely to art. He began by painting from life and soon developed a love for maritime painting: the port, the Medici canals […]
Ricci Ezio
Born in Lucca, a pupil at the local Istituto di Belle Arti, Ezio Ricci showed an early talent for real life painting, as can be seen in works such as “Donne che pregano” (Praying Women), painted in 1903, and “Ritratto della nonna” (Portrait of my grandmother), 1907.
In 1916 he was appointed professor of the decorative arts […]
Romiti Gino
Gino Romiti was from Leghorn and was a pupil of Guglielmo Micheli. When he was sixteen he was also taught by Giovanni Fattori when the master spent the summer in the town of his birth. In 1898 he took part at the Milan “Permanente”, while until about 1902 he continued to study under Micheli, becoming close friends with Amedeo Modigliani […]
Severini Gino
Born in Tuscany, after studying at the Scuola Tecnica di Cortona in 1899 he went to Rome to the Scuola libera del Nudo all’Accademia and attended evening classes in drawing at the Villa Medici. He made friends with Boccioni, Corazzini and Cambellotti who shared his interest in socialist ideas and philosophy. Together with Boccioni […]
Tommasi Lodovico
The artistic career of Ludovico Tommasi, the youngest in the family, is completely different from that of his elder brother Angiolo. Ludovico did not receive any formal training. However, from a tender age he showed such a real passion for music, that his parents, who had moved to la Casaccia in Bellariva, enrolled him in the Florence […]
Viani Lorenzo
Lorenzo Viani spent his childhood at the Royal Villa in Viareggio, where his father was employed by Don Carlos of Bourbon. The Viani’s economic situation was comfortable as long as the father continued to work for Don Carlos. Lorenzo attended only the first three grades of elementary school. The boy was not easily biddable […]
Wostry Carlo
Carlo Wostry was born in Trieste on February 18, 1865. His father was Irish and his mother, Virginia Artelli, came from an old prominent Venetian family. From 1882 to 1885, he was at Vienna’s Fine Arts Academy, studying portraiture under solid masters like Franz von Leinbach. He then moved to the Academy in Munich […]
Zampieri Alberto
Born in Leghorn in 1903 Alberto Zampieri was an extremely precocious artist. When he was thirteen years old he was already working on ‘plein-air’ paintings of views of Leghorn and the surrounding countryside. He produced lively impressions from life using his newly purchased oil paints bought in the famous shop in Via Indipendenza […]