Carlo Domenici - (Livorno 1897 - Portoferraio 1981) - Horses on the beach
Oil on panel, 70x50cm With frame 89x70cm
Signed lower right.
Carlo Domenici (Livorno 1897 - Elba Island 1981) is one of the major representatives of the Livorno group of the Labronici, founded in 1920 at Caffè Bardi, a historical meeting place for the members of the movement. The artists of the group share a style that can be attributed to post-Macchiaioli; also the subjects represented (the Tuscan countryside and seascapes, farmers and animals at work...) demonstrate how the Labronici shared with the Macchiaioli progenitors the love for their land. Carlo Domenici, after an academic training, dedicates himself to Macchia painting. Scenes of rural life in which naturalism and chromatic pleasure merge. Tuscany is always the protagonist of his landscapes, in particular three areas of his land: the Maremma, with its farmers and animals working in the fields, close in style and technique to the great Fattori; masterpieces with a bucolic flavor, in which the warm tones of the countryside merge with the hard features of the men and women who harvest or thresh the wheat. The Island of Elba and its marine scenes; paintings in which the atmosphere and the sea breeze are captured through lively tones and vibrant lights. Finally, his beloved Livorno, described with precision of details and strong emotionality. In 1940 he moved to Florence but did not abandon the subjects dear to him, often returning to his places of origin to portray his countryside. In 1970 he definitively settled on the Island of Elba and in 1976 a stroke paralyzed his right arm, preventing him from continuing his pictorial career with constancy. What definitively threw Domenici into disrepair was the death of his wife. The only great satisfaction of his last years of life was the appointment as President of the Labronico Group in 1979, a position he held until the year of his death, 1981.
