GAETANO CHIERICI Lot n° 179

Reggio Emilia, 1838 - 1920 Almsgiving Signed Chierici fec. and dated 1869? lower right Oil on canvas, 47X58.5 cm. Provenance: Rome, Christie's, May 30, 1995, lot 284 Brescia, Galleria d'Arte Santa Giulia Italy, private collection Bibliography: The work is archived at the Baboni Archive for 19th-century Italian Painting and will be included in the updated catalog raisonné. Best known as a genre painter for his realistic depiction of scenes of domestic life, Chierici also tackled historical and religious themes with excellent results, keeping faith with the solid academic and purist tradition in the wake of Flemish and Dutch painting of the 17th century. In Florence, in 1858, at the School of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts, he came into contact with the Macchiaioli. In fact, the theme of friars repeatedly tackled by Chierici in the 1860s and 1870s, and the subject of our paintings illustrated here, is influenced by and close to the painters Borrani and Abbati, who had repeatedly tried their hand at making these same subjects. His figurative path is oriented to deal with subjects such as cloister architectures or landscapes animated by religious figures, where the sense of the real is articulated between lights and shadows, favoring the immediacy of the pictorial drafting. In the 1960s, his art was also expressed through elegant, intense and expressive portraits, and then, from the late 1970s, he moved on to genre scenes, narrated with intense realism and a highly descriptive technique, always with a witty and personal vein. As early as 1866, Chierici retired to his hometown, where he would produce many works, sending them to exhibitions in Vienna and Munich; he then exhibited in London from 1877 to 1881, in Boston and Milan, as well as at the major international exhibitions of the time. Also during this period he would be appointed director of the School of Fine Arts in Reggio Emilia. Reference bibliography: Gaetano Chierici pittore (1838; 1920) exhibition catalog edited by E. Somaré, Milan 1938, ad vocem G. Morselli, The painting of Gaetano Chierici (1838-1920), Reggio Emilia 1964, ad vocem