Matilde Malenchini, née Meoni (3 December 1779 – 8 September 1858) was an Italian portrait and

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

painter in the Academic style.

Biography

She 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 ...

. In 1796, she married Vincenzo Francesco Malenchini, a painter and musician.Mario Battistini, "Livornesi amici di Luigi de Potter: la pittrice Malenchini, Antonio Benci e Pompeo Anichini", in ''Bollettino Storico Livornese'', Direttore Ersilio Michel, #1, Deputazione Toscana di Storia Patria-sezione di Livorno, Jan-Mar 1937, p. 62. Although they soon separated, she retained his name for the rest of her life. In 1807, she entered the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze ("academy of fine arts of Florence") is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. ...

, where she studied under the guidance of

Pietro Benvenuti Pietro Benvenuti (8 January 1769 – 3 February 1844) was an Italian neoclassical painter. Biography Born in Arezzo in Tuscany, he was influenced by the style of Jacques-Louis David. He was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, then ...

. During these years, for practice and for pay, she copied the works by old Italian and Dutch masters at the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

. In 1811, she received a four-year annual stipend from Elisa Bonaparte to study in Rome at the "Pontificia Accademia romana delle belle arti di San Luca".Marijcke Schillings, "Matilde Malenchini", in ''Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek'', #21, Brussels, Paleis der Academiën, 2014, col. 697-70

/ref> Malenchini-Potter

While there, she made the acquaintance of the French Governor of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

, General François de Miollis, who was also an art collector. He eventually purchased eighteen of her works and helped her establish a studio in the convent of

Trinità dei Monti The church of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti, often called merely the Trinità dei Monti ( French: ''La Trinité-des-Monts''), is a Roman Catholic late Renaissance titular church in Rome, central Italy. It is best known for its position above ...

. She focused on painting church interiors and worked with scholarship students from the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

who were living at the

Villa Medici The Villa Medici () is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, ...

. In 1815, she was named a "Professor of Merit" at 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 ...

.List of Academic Titles
@ the Accademia di San Luca. Matilde Malenchini Klostergang 1819

Louis de Potter

She also met the Belgian writer

Louis de Potter Louis de Potter (26 April 1786 – 22 July 1859), was a Belgian journalist, revolutionary, politician and writer. Out of the more than 100 books and pamphlets, one of the most notable works was his famous ''Letter to my Fellow Citizens'' in which ...

, with whom she had a long and intense relationship. From 1817 to 1819, they both shared a home with the painter François-Joseph Navez. They attempted to obtain an

annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within Law, secular and Religious law, religious legal systems for declaring a marriage Void (law), null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually ex post facto law, retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is c ...

of her previous marriage by appealing to the Roman Curia, but their requests coincided with some scandalous trials involving monks and nuns, which made the Curia unusually cautious. To complicate matters, her husband, who supported the request, had problems with the police. In 1820, Matilde was forced to leave Rome and settled in Florence. The following year, she was named an Honorary Professor at the Accademia. De Potter returned to

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

in 1823 to attend to his ailing father. In 1824, after his father's death, De Potter moved to Brussels and invited Malenchini to join him. Their home became a meeting place for expatriate Italians and political refugees. Together with their friend Navez, they organized painting classes. He also became a prominent advocate for Belgian independence. She soon became restless, travelled continuously, and finally returned to Florence. De Potter, frustrated at being unable to marry, decided to end the relationship in 1826. The following year, he married Sophie van Weydeveldt (1808–1896), with whom he had four children. Realizing that this would leave her in serious financial difficulties, he agreed to give her an annual pension of 1,200 Francs.

Final years

Due to De Potter's political problems, including 18 months in prison for a pamphlet denouncing King

William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...

and exile in Germany, the pension was unsteady until after the

Belgian Revolution The Belgian Revolution (, ) was the conflict which led to the secession of the southern provinces (mainly the former Southern Netherlands) from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and the establishment of an independent Kingdom of Belgium. T ...

when De Potter became a member of the

Provisional Government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or f ...

. She turned to painting portraits as a way of making up the difference. There was no contact between them until 1854, following the death of his son Eleuthère, when he wrote her an affectionate letter. In 1855, at the age of seventy-six, she was accused of pushing one of her maids out of a window when the maid was caught stealing. She was defended by the noted lawyer, , but was sentenced to three and a half years of detention. The ruling was overturned shortly after, but reinstated in 1857. One of her last paintings depicts the interior of the prison in Florence. She died in 1858 in

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. Sin ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malenchini, Mathilde 1779 births 1858 deaths 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian women artists Italian women painters Italian portrait painters Italian genre painters Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze alumni Italian people who died in prison custody People from Livorno