Guglielmo Ciardi (Venice 1842-1917) – Mountain Landscape
Oil painting on canvas signed on the lower left depicting a mountain landscape "SAN MARTINO DI CASTROZZA" as indicated on the back.
Dimensions: canvas 30.5x 25cm frame 45x50cm
Guglielmo Ciardi was born in Venice on September 13, 1842.
After completing his classical studies at the Santa Caterina college, instead of following his father's advice and enrolling at the University of Padua to become a notary, he enrolled, in 1864, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.
Here he attended, among others, perspective courses held by Federico Moja and landscape lessons by Domenico Bresolin.
The latter introduced the young man to en plein air painting.
The first painting known to us, Mountain Landscape, dates back to 1862 and belonged to his painter friend Luigi Nono.
In these years he met Ippolito Caffi and Federico Zandomeneghi.
From the outset, he oriented his painting towards the landscape genre (Marina chioggiotta and After the storm, 1867, Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna), referring to the lesson of the old Venetian masters.
Thirsty for new knowledge, he undertook numerous study trips in 1868: to Florence, attracted by the novelties of the Macchiaioli school (we remember the only pictorial testimony of the Florentine stay: On the way to Fiesole), then to Naples where he frequented Morelli, Filippo Palizzi and the Resina school and finally to Rome where, inspired by his friend Nino Costa, he frequented the surrounding countryside and the places of Ariccia.
The painting The surroundings of Rome, currently located in Venice at Ca' Pesaro, dates from this period.
These new experiences distanced him from the old schemes in favor of new compositional conceptions (Surroundings of Rome, Capri, The valley of the mills in Sorrento, In Licola, Venice, Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Ca' Pesaro).
In 1869 he returned to Venice and married Linda Locatelli, with whom he had Beppe and Emma, who were also painters.
From the end of the 1870s he regularly participated in the exhibitions of the Promotrici of Genoa and Turin.
In the 1880s Guglielmo Ciardi varied the drafting of the color, in favor of a luministic enhancement (Messidoro, 1883, Rome, National Gallery of Modern Art; Morning in the Giudecca, 1890, Trieste, Revoltella Museum).
In 1878 the participations in the great international exhibitions began, the first, together with Favretto, at the Universal Exhibition of Paris, with two paintings, including Laguna di Venezia, was reported by Luigi Chirtani of "L'Arte Italiana" as "one of the best works" of the Italian section. In 1883 he took part in the International Exhibition of Munich with 5 paintings. Eleven years later he obtained the chair of "School of views of country and sea" at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. The following year he participated in the foundation of the Venice Biennale where he exhibited his works for eleven editions. In these years he made numerous trips to Florence, Naples, Capri and also Paris, Munich and London. Guglielmo Ciardi died in Venice on October 5, 1917.
