Eduardo Sívori (October 13, 1847 – June 5, 1918) was an Argentine artist widely regarded as his country's first
realist painter.
Life and work
Born to
Genoese immigrants in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
, Sívori had harbored artistic leanings during childhood that, for family reasons, went unfulfilled. Asked by his father to join him on a business trip to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1874, Sívori took the opportunity to frequent Parisian
ateliers. Returning to Buenos Aires, the experience drew him to other local painters, including his brother, Alejandro,
José Aguyari and
Eduardo Schiaffino, who would later become one of Argentina's best-known
symbolist
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
*Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea
Arts
*Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea
** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...
painters. Together, they founded the Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts in 1875, an important early milestone in the development of artisan
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
s in Argentina.
Sívori earned recognition for his ''Dolce far niente'' ("Sweet Do Nothing"), for which he was awarded a gold medal at the 1880 Continental Art Salon of Buenos Aires. He returned to Paris in 1882, eventually earning an apprenticeship in the prestigious
Jean Paul Laurens atelier, following which he created ''El despertar de la criada'' ("Waking of the Servant"), perhaps his best remembered work. Increasingly renowned, his travels took him to the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, where he was awarded a second gold medal at the
St. Louis Exposition of 1884 for ''Dolce far niente''.
Sívori thereafter focused his efforts on commercial art, creating portraits and landscapes for clients, among the best-known of which was local stockbreeder Godofredo Daireaux's in 1903. His bucolic landscapes soon earned him renown as the "portraiteur of the pampas." These relationships helped result in the designation of his guild as an official entity within the National Academy of Fine Arts in 1905, of which he was named president in 1910. Eduardo Sívori died in Buenos Aires in 1918 at the age of seventy, and was honored posthumously with the naming of the new
Eduardo Sívori Museum in his honor, in 1938.
External links
Official Sívori Museum biography
Argentine people of Italian descent
Artists from Buenos Aires
1847 births
1918 deaths
Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery
19th-century Argentine painters
19th-century Argentine male artists
Argentine male painters
20th-century Argentine painters
Realist painters
20th-century Argentine male artists
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