Ettore Castaldi (16 December 16, 1877 – 16 August 1956) was an Italian painter, painting mainly outdoor landscapes.

Biography

He was born in

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

; orphaned at a young age, he was raised by uncle, and put to manual work in the port. This rough environment failed to lessen his vocation for art, encourage by his encounters with the ''Labronico painters'', including Corrado Michelozzi and

Adriano Baracchini Caputi Adriano Baracchini Caputi (1883 – 1968) was an Italian painter, active in Livorno in a Divisionist style. Biography He was born in Florence, and moved at the age of 16 years to Livorno. He was influenced by the Vittore Grubicy, and practiced div ...

, at the

Caffè Bardi The former Caffè Bardi was a notable coffee house and meeting place in the 19th through mid-20th century for artists and intellectuals in Livorno, a region of Tuscany, Italy. The coffee-house no longer exists and stood at the corner of via Cairoli ...

. He made many frescoes in the churches of the

Garfagnana The Garfagnana () is a historical and geographical region of central Italy, today part of the province of Lucca, in Tuscany. It is the upper valley or basin of the river Serchio, and thus lies between the main ridge of the Northern Apennines to ...

. In 1920 signed the ''Declaration of Tribute to Puccini'', published by the Artistic Livorno after the split which gave rise to the establishment of

Gruppo Labronico The Gruppo Labronico is an Italian artistic association founded in Livorno in 1920. History The Labronico group of artists is rooted in the heyday of the Caffè Bardi. After the Caffè closed and the death of Mario Puccini, the Gruppo Labroni ...

. As an anarchist sympathizer, in 1924 he went into exile in Santos, Brazil. He remained in touch with family, friends, and painters of Livorno, but spent the war in Brazil, and chose not to return to Italy. He died in Santos, Brazil, at 16 August 1956. In 2013, a portrait of Castaldi painted by Corrado Michelozzi was donated to the Pinacoteca Carlo Servolini.

References

1877 births 1956 deaths 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists Painters from Livorno 20th-century Brazilian painters 20th-century Brazilian male artists Italian landscape painters Italian emigrants to Brazil 19th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-19thC-stub Gruppo Labronico