Niccolò Cannicci (1846–1906) was an Italian painter; best known for his urban and rural views, often depicting the intersection of the urban and industrial landscape with the rural and pastoral.

Biography

He was born to the painter, Gaetano Cannicci (1811-1878), who was originally from

San Gimignano San Gimignano () is a small walled medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of ...

. His first lessons came from his father then, from 1862 to 1865, he attended 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 he studied with Giuseppe Marrubini and

Enrico Pollastrini Enrico Pollastrini (15 June 1817, Livorno – 19 January 1876, Florence) was an Italian history painter and art school director. Life and work He began his training as an assistant in the workshop of a local artist named Vincenzo De Bonis. In 1 ...

, and participated in the nude drawing classes of

Antonio Ciseri Antonio Ciseri (25 October 1821 – 8 March 1891) was a Swiss-Italian painter of religious subjects. Biography He was born in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland. He went to Florence in 1833 to study drawing with Ernesto Bonaiuti. Within a year, ...

. After graduating, he frequented the

Caffè Michelangiolo Caffè Michelangiolo was a historic café in Florence, located in Via Larga (now renamed Via Cavour). During the nineteenth century Wars of Italian Independence, it became a major meeting place for Tuscan writers and artists, and for patriots and ...

, meeting with

Giovanni Fattori Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Barbi ...

and other members of the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

. During this time, he focused on landscapes of

Maremma The Maremma (, ; from Latin , "maritime and) is a coastal area of western central Italy, bordering the Tyrrhenian Sea. It includes much of south-western Tuscany and part of northern Lazio. It was formerly mostly marshland, often malarial, but ...

and the area around San Gimignano, where he lived with an uncle. In 1872, he had his first showing at the Accademia. Three years later, he went to Paris, where he stayed with Fattori,

Egisto Ferroni Egisto Ferroni (14 December 1835, Lastra a Signa – 25 May 1912, Florence) was an Italian painter, specializing in pastoral, rural, and genre subjects. Life and work His father, Egiziano, was a Master stonemason. He had originally intended to ...

and

Francesco Gioli Francesco Gioli (29 June 1846, San Frediano a Settimo – 4 February 1922, Florence) was an Italian painter and member of the Macchiaioli movement. His brother Luigi, was also a painter of some note. Biography He was born to a wealthy family. H ...

. His work became heavily influenced by them, but he was also exposed to

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. From 1876, he attended meetings of the "Decentralist Committee", formed by the art critic

Diego Martelli Diego Martelli (October 29, 1839 – November 20, 1896) was an Italian art critic who was one of the first supporters of Impressionism in Italy. He was a defender and associate of the Tuscan artists the Macchiaioli, whom he often hosted at his esta ...

, and began promoting greater autonomy for the local academies in Italy. Over the next decade, he participated in several major exhibitions, including the

Exposition Universelle (1878) The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War. Construction The buildings and the fairgroun ...

, and one at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

in London (1883). He was a regular exhibitor at the Esposizione Internazionale di Venezia from 1887."Sesta Esposizione Internazionale di Venezia. Catalogo illustrato", Carlo Ferrari, Venice, 1905 pp. 122 For much of his adult life, his physical and mental health were in a fragile state. Following the death of his mother in 1893, he suffered a nervous breakdown and made several suicide attempts. This resulted in his being committed to the psychiatric hospital.Andrea Friscelli, ''Le storie del manicomio: Niccolò Cannicci, il Pascoli della pittura'', from the ''Siena News'', 21 May 2017
Online
He did, however, make use of this experience; creating an album of portraits of the mentally ill. Later, he settled in the isolated village of

Montemiccioli Montemiccioli is a village in Tuscany, central Italy, administratively a frazione of the comune of Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th cen ...

and began participating in local exhibitions. He died in Florence, aged fifty-nine.

References

External links

Biography
from the '' Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' @

Treccani The ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (Italian for "Italian Encyclopedia of Science, Letters, and Arts"), best known as ''Treccani'' for its developer Giovanni Treccani or ''Enciclopedia Italiana'', is an Italian-language en ...

Biographical notes
@ the Istituto Matteucci
More works by Cannicci
@ ArtNet {{DEFAULTSORT:Cannicci Niccolo 1846 births 1906 deaths Painters from Florence 19th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Italian genre painters Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze alumni 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links