Carlo Fornara (21 October 1871 – 15 September 1968) was an Italian

neo-impressionist Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's most renowned masterpiece, '' A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'', marked the beginn ...

and

divisionist Divisionism, also called chromoluminarism, was the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches which interacted optically..Homer, William I. ''Seurat and the Science of ...

painter.

Biography

Born in Prestinone (

Craveggia Craveggia is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about north of Domodossola, on the border with Switzerland. As of 31 December 2004, it had a pop ...

) into a humble family of

Valle Vigezzo Valle Vigezzo (Vigezzo Valley) is a valley in the Lepontine Alps in northwestern Italy on the border with Canton Ticino of Switzerland. It forms the eastern branch of the Ossola valley. It is also called the Valle dei Pittori (Valley of the Pai ...

farmers in 1871, his talent emerged after he began attending courses in painting, drawing and ornamentation at the local Rossetti Valentini Art School in Santa Maria Maggiore, where he became close friends with other future painters such as Giovanni Battista Ciolina, Gian Maria Rastellini and Lorenzo Peretti Junior, and absorbed the teachings of Enrico Cavalli, a great connoisseur of the French art of the time, who decisively influenced him to follow the path of painting. In the spring of 1891 he exhibited two works, ''La bottega del calderaio (The Tinker’s Workshop)'' and ''Ricordanze (Remembrance)'', at the First Triennale of Brera, a vitally important occasion because there he made contact for the first time with the arising

movement. However, during his stay in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, from 1894 to 1895, in the company of his friend and fellow painter Giovanni Battista Ciolina, Fornara drew closer to the

movement, as he manifested in the work ''En plein air'' which was, however, refused in 1897 by the Third Biennale of Brera, despite being judged very positively by artists such as

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (28 July 1868 – 14 June 1907) was an Italian divisionist painter. He was born and died in Volpedo, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Pellizza was a pupil of Pio Sanquirico. He used a divisionist techniq ...

and

Giovanni Segantini Giovanni Segantini (15 January 1858 – 28 September 1899) was an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century, and his paintings were collected by ...

, two of the leading exponents of divisionism. In 1899 he took part in the in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. He made the acquaintance of Alberto Grubicy de Dragon, owner of the Grubicy Gallery and brother of the promoter of divisionism in Europe, the art dealer

Vittore Grubicy de Dragon Vittore Grubicy de Dragon (15 October 1851 – 4 August 1920) was an Italian painter, art critic and art gallery owner who was largely responsible for introducing into Italian painting the optical theories of Divisionism. His writings and p ...

, himself a painter, and impressed them both. They put him in touch with Segantini, who employed the young artist as his assistant at the 1900

Paris Exposition Universelle The Exposition Universelle of 1889 () was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 5 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fourth of eight expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The ...

. Thanks to the patronage of the Grubicys, Fornara’s work was presented at all the national and international painting exhibitions of any importance in those years, but his adherence to the divisionist school gradually began to wane until it finally petered out altogether during the 1920s, when the artist began his own painting research in a completely personal style. In 1922 he definitively retired to his beloved Val Vigezzo, where he died in 1968.

Exhibitions

* "''Una scuola di pittura in Val Vigezzo: 1881–1919''":

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

, 1990 * "''Carlo Fornara. Un maestro del divisionismo''":

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ce ...

, 1998 * "''Carlo Fornara. Il colore della valle''":

Acqui Terme Acqui Terme (; pms, Àich ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Alessandria, Piedmont, northern Italy. It is about south-southwest of Alessandria. It is one of the principal winemaking communes of the Italian DOCG wine Brachetto d'A ...

, 2007 * "''Paesaggi dell'Ottocento. Verso la luce''":

Riva del Garda Riva del Garda (''Rìva'' in local dialect) is a town and ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Trento of the Trentino Alto Adige region. It is also known simply as ''Riva'' and is located at the northern tip of Lake Garda. History Ri ...

, 2010 * "''Le soglie della natura''": Arco di Trento, 2010 * "''Alessandro Poscio, collezionista appassionato''":

Domodossola Domodossola (; Lombard: Dòm) is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, in the region of Piedmont, northern Italy. It was also known as Oscela, Oscella, Oscella dei Leponzi, Ossolo, Ossola Lepontiorum, and Domo d'Ossola ...

, 2014 * "''Carlo Fornara e il ritratto vigezzino''":Exhibition "Carlo Fornara e il ritratto vigezzino" at Fondazione Poscio
/ref> Domodossola, 2015 * "''Brera 1891. L’esposizione che rivoluzionò l’arte moderna''":

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, 2016

Literature

Thieme-Becker Thieme-Becker is a German biographical dictionary of artists. Thieme-Becker The dictionary was begun under the editorship of Ulrich Thieme (1865–1922) (volumes one to fifteen) and Felix Becker (1864–1928) (volumes one to four). It was complet ...

: "''Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart''", Seemann, Leipzig, 1907–1950 * Raffaele Calzini: "''Carlo Fornara''", Pizzi, Milan, 1949 * Auctores varii: "''Carlo Fornara nel centenario della sua nascita''", n. 3 "Oscellana" magazine, Domodossola, 1971 * Marco Valsecchi/Franco Vercelotti: "''Carlo Fornara pittore''", All'insegna del pesce d'oro, Milan, 1971 * Guido Cesura: "''Enrico Cavalli e la pittura vigezzina''", Colombi, Milan, 1974 * Davide Ramoni: "''Scuola di belle arti Rossetti Valentini in Santa Maria Maggiore. Vicende e contributi alla pittura vigezzina nel centenario della fondazione''", tip. S. Gaudenzio, Novara, 1978 * Dario Gnemmi: "''Una scuola di pittura in Val Vigezzo: 1881–1919. Carlo Giuseppe ed Enrico Cavalli, Giovanni Battista Ciolina, Carlo Fornara''", Il Quadrante, Turin, 1990 * Guido Cesura: "''Enrico Cavalli pittore''", Grossi, Domodossola, 1993 * Dario Gnemmi: "''Retour à la ferme''", Biglia Club, Domodossola, 1993 * Annie-Paule Quinsac: "''Carlo Fornara. Un maestro del Divisionismo''",

Skira The festival of the Skira ( grc, Σκίρα) or Skirophoria ( grc, Σκιροφόρια) in the calendar of ancient Athens, closely associated with the Thesmophoria, marked the dissolution of the old year in May/June. Description At Athens, t ...

, Milan, 1998 * Francesco Ferrari: "''La scuola di belle arti Rossetti Valentini in Santa Maria Maggiore''", Grossi, Domodossola, 1999 * Dario Gnemmi: "''Monticelli e la scuola di Enrico Cavalli''", Madame Webb, Domodossola, 2006 * Dario Gnemmi: "''Vigezzini di Francia. Pittura d'alpe e d'Oltralpe tra Otto e Novecento in Valle Vigezzo''", Skira, Milan, 2007 * Giovanna Nicoletti: "''Paesaggi dell'Ottocento. Verso la luce''", Temi, Trento, 2009 * Davide Brullo: "''Carlo Fornara attraverso le lettere ad Amedeo Catapano''", Marietti 1820, Bologna, 2010 * Giovanna Nicoletti/Dario Gnemmi: "''Le soglie della natura''", Grafica 5, Arco di Trento, 2010 * Davide Brullo: "''Appassionata incompetenza. I primi cinquant'anni della collezione Poscio''", Madame Webb, Domodossola, 2011

References

External links

Carlo Fornara on Treccani, Enciclopedia Treccani

A gallery of Fornara's paintings in Collezione Poscio, Domodossola

Archives of () exhibitions

Archives of exhibitions at Collezione Poscio {{DEFAULTSORT:Fornara, Carlo Landscape painters Portrait painters 1871 births 1968 deaths 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century male artists 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists People from Craveggia 19th-century Italian male artists