Guglielmo Ciardi (1842-1917) - Mountain Landscape

Guglielmo Ciardi (Venice 1842-1917)
Oil painting on canvas signed lower left depicting mountain landscape "SAN MARTINO DI CASTROZZA" as on the back.

Dimensions: canvas 30,5x25cm frame 45x50cm

Guglielmo Ciardi was born in Venice on 13 September 1842.

After finishing his classical studies at the college of Santa Caterina, instead of following his father's advice and enrolling at the University of Padua to become a notary public, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1864.

 Here he attended, among others, perspective courses held by Federico Moja and landscape lessons by Domenico Bresolin.

From the latter, the young man was initiated into en plein air painting.

The first painting known to us, Mountain Landscape, dates back to 1862 and belonged to his painter friend Luigi Nono.

During these years, he made the acquaintance of Ippolito Caffi and Federico Zandomeneghi.

Right from the start, he orientated his painting towards the landscape genre (Marina chioggiotta and Dopo il temporale, 1867, Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna), drawing on the lesson of the old masters from Veneto.

Thirsty for new knowledge, he undertook numerous study trips in 1868: to Florence, attracted by the novelties of the Macchiaioli school (remember the only pictorial testimony of his Florentine sojourn: Sulla via di 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 sites of Ariccia.

From this period is the painting The Surroundings of Rome, now in Venice at Ca' Pesaro.

These new experiences moved him away from the old schemes in favour of new compositional concepts (Surroundings of Rome, Capri, The Valley of the Mills in Sorrento, A Licola, Venice, Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Ca' Pesaro).

In 1869 he returned to Venice and married Linda Locatelli from whom he had Beppe and Emma, also painters.

From the late 1970s he regularly participated in the exhibitions of the Promotrici in Genoa and Turin.

 In the 1880s, Guglielmo Ciardi changed the use of colour in favour of luministic enhancement (Messidoro, 1883, Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna; Mattino alla Giudecca, 1890, Trieste, Museo Revoltella).

In 1878, his participation in major international exhibitions began, the first, together with Favretto, at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, with two paintings among which Laguna di Venezia was reported by Luigi Chirtani of 'L'Arte Italiana' as 'one of the best works' in the Italian section. In 1883, he took part in the International Exhibition in Munich with five paintings. Eleven years later, he obtained the chair of the 'School of Village and Sea Views' at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. The following year, he participated in the founding of the Venetian Biennale where he exhibited his works for eleven editions. During these years he made numerous trips to Florence, Naples, Capri and also Paris, Munich and London. Guglielmo Ciardi died in Venice on 5 October 1917.