Giacomo Gandi (1846 – 1932) was an Italian painter noted for

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

Biography

He was born in

Saluzzo Saluzzo (; pms, Salusse ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy. The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are fo ...

in the

Province of Cuneo Cuneo (Italian), or Coni (Piedmontese), is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur ( departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and Haut ...

, Italy, to an author of agricultural texts. After studying briefly under

Andrea Gastaldi Andrea Gastaldi (April 18, 1826 – January 9, 1889) was an Italian painter, primarily of historical canvases and portraits. Biography Gastaldi was born and died in Turin, Piedmont. He studied at the Accademia Albertina under Michele Cusa, ...

at the

Accademia Albertina The Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti ("Albertina Academy of Fine Arts") is an institution of higher education in Turin, Italy History In the first half of the seventeenth century, there was a "University of Painters, Sculptors and Architects" ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, 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 ...

, Giacomo Gandi continued his formation independently by making trips to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

– where he settled around 1869 – and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

. He appears to have prided himself in never setting foot in the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

in Rome, instead training with a painter by the surname Gigi. Moving to

Savigliano Savigliano (Savijan in Piedmontese) is a ''comune'' of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, about south of Turin by rail. It is home to ironworks, foundries, locomotive works (once owned by Fiat Ferroviaria, now by Alstom) and s ...

after 1874, he specialised in genre painting and watercolour in which he executed two works for the 1878 Exposition Universelle in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He participated in the national exhibitions in

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 ...

in 1872, Turin in 1880 and 1884, Milan in 1881 and, two years later in the Rome Esposizione di Belle Arti. He also took part in the shows organised by the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti di

Torino 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. T ...

from 1870 to 1896, as well as those in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, Florence and

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. The great success of his painting inspired by the life of the common people began to decline towards the end of the 19th century due to the changing tastes of collectors. However, he continued unstintingly to practise his art, albeit in the narrow environment of Savigliano, until the last years of his life when he was prevented from doing so by an eye disease. He died in 1932 in Savigliano. He was named a knight of the

Order of the Crown of Italy The Order of the Crown of Italy ( it, Ordine della Corona d'Italia, italic=no or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civi ...

. Among his works:Dizionario degli artisti italiani viventi, pittori, scultori e architetti
by Angelo De Gubernatis, with notes by Ugo Matini; Le Monnier publishers, Florence (1889); page 217. *''In Teatro'' (1880, version exhibited in Turin) *''A mosca cieca'' *''I piccoli giocatori'' *''Nel parco'' *''Al quaresimale'' *''In tavola'' *''La mamma assente'' *''La tabacchiera del Nonno'' *''Chi sarà?'' *''Un nemico di casa'' (1881, exhibited in Milan) *''Prima confessione'' *''Pianura'' *''Ave Maria'' *''Un nuovo parente'' (1883, exhibited in Rome) *''Sempliciano'' *''Un sentiero delle Alpi'' (1884, exhibited in Turin)

References

* Laura Casone
Giacomo Gandi
, online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit found ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for the first revision of this article).

Other projects

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandi, Giacomo 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Italian genre painters People from the Province of Cuneo 1846 births 1932 deaths 20th-century Italian male artists