Silvestro Lega

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Silvestro Lega (born December 8, 1826 in Modigliana , † November 21, 1895 in Florence ) was an Italian painter of realism .

Self-Portrait 1861

Life

Lega came from a wealthy family and studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence from 1843 to 1847. As an ardent supporter of Giuseppe Garibaldi and Father Giovanni Verità (1807-1885), he took part in the independence struggles of 1848/49 (Battle of Curtatone and Montanara). He then continued his studies in Florence with Antonio Ciseri .

He made a name for himself with large-format pictures such as the unbeliever Thomas in the Ospitale Civico in Modigliania (1858). He joined the Macchiaioli , a group of Florentine painters who rejected academic painting, relatively late in 1861. In 1863 he painted the lunettes plague, hunger, war and earthquake in the oratory of the Madonna del Cantone church in Modigliani . After that he joined the Macchiaioli more closely (especially through the mediation of Telemaco Signorini ) and, like them, painted landscape and genre pictures outdoors. They were guests of the Batelli family in Pergentina . Several strokes of fate struck him in the 1870s. First Virginia Batelli and her brothers died, in 1876 his art business (which he owned with the painter Odoardo Borrani) went bankrupt and around 1880 he developed an eye problem. He lived for five years with his pupil Tommasi in Bella Riva and from 1886 with the Bandini family in Poggiopoiano al Gabbro near Livorno . He was impoverished and lonely and suffered from stomach cancer, but remained active as a painter.

gallery

  • The dying Giuseppe Mazzini , 1873

  • La lettura, 1864

  • Il canto di uno stornello, 1868

  • Ragazza di Crespina, ca.1870

  • Eleonora Tommasi, 1881

  • Portrait of a Lady, 1882

  • In Giardino, 1883

  • Tra i fiori del giardino, 1883

  • La Pergola, 1868

  • Alla villa di Poggio Piano, around 1885

  • Return of the Bersaglieri from an exploration, 1861

  • The mother

  • Scene in Piagentina , 1863

  • Farmers in Gabbro

  • The Curious 1866

  • Sleep of innocence

Portraits

literature

  • L. Vertova, Kindler's Malereilexikon, dtv 1982
  • M. Borgiotti Poesia dei Macchiaioli , Milan 1958
  • P. Bucarelli et al. a. Mostra dei Macchiaioli, exhibition catalog, Rome 1956
  • M. Valsecchi Lega , Milan 1950
  • E. Somaré Silvestro Lega , Milan 1926
  • Telemaco Signorini Silvestro Lega , Florence 1895
  • Norma Broude The Macchiaioli: Italian Painters of the Nineteenth Century , Yale University Press 1987
  • E. Steingräber, G. Matteucci The Macchiaioli: Tuscan Painters of the Sunlight , exhibition catalog, March / April 1984, New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen Gallerie, in collaboration with Matthiesen, London.

Web links

Commons : Silvestro Lega  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Lega, Silvestro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Modigliana
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1895
Place of death Florence