Edoardo Gelli

Edoardo Gelli
Edoardo Gelli in his art studio, ca. 1888
Born(1851-09-04)September 4, 1851
Savona
Died(1933-03-30)March 30, 1933
Florence
Resting place
Soffiano
SpouseIda Marchesini
Parents
  • Antonio Gelli (father)
  • Marina Dall’Orso (mother)

Edoardo Gelli, also known as Eduardo Gelli or Odoardo Gelli (4 September 1851 in Savona – 30 March 1933 in Florence), was an Italian genre[1] and portrait painter (and later academician)[2]; active in Florence and Vienna between the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century.[3]

Biography

Gelli was born in Savona, where his parents, Antonio Gelli (from Lucca) and Marina Dall’Orso (from Chiavari), managed the Albergo dell’Universo (later Albergo Svizzero) from 1849.

In 1862 his mother moved to Lucca to allow him to attend the Regio Istituto di Belle Arti (Royal Institute of Fine Arts), where he studied until 1871 under teachers including Carlo Dal Poggetto and Antonio Fontanesi.[4] In 1872 he obtained a scholarship to continue his studies in Florence, where he later settled.

He trained in at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (Academy of fine arts of Florence) under Antonio Ciseri. The contemporary American art collector James Jackson Jarves grouped him with Francesco Vinea and Tito Conti, two other costume genre painters.[5]

In 1873 he exhibited San Sebastiano, followed in 1875 by An Episode of the Massacre of the Innocents, both now preserved at Palazzo Mansi in Lucca.[6]

During his early Florentine years, he focused on historical costume subjects such as Charles I in Van Dyck's Studio and scenes from the Thirty Years' War, alongside genre scenes often set in 18th-century or convent environments.

From the early 1880s, he devoted himself mainly to portrait painting. Notable works include portraits of Luigi Pisani (1883), Diego Martelli and Ernesto Bellandi (1884, Uffizi Galleries, Florence). In 1886 he traveled to Vienna, where he exhibited at the Künstlerhaus and gained significant success, leading to commissions from Emperor Franz Joseph I and members of the Habsburg court. He remained in Vienna until 1888.

In November 1888 he was appointed resident academician of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence.

After returning to Italy, he painted members of the House of Savoy, working in Monza and Rome. In 1900, a portrait of Queen Margherita was sent to the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, he displayed The Lost Chord.[7]

Within the era of late 19th-century Florence, Gelli became a portraitist of high society.

In his studio in Via Marsilio Ficino, he painted in 1899 a large portrait of the Royal Family of Siam during their European tour,[4][2] now displayed in the throne hall of the Grand Palace in Bangkok. King Rama V also commissioned him to paint the Crown Prince and purchased a number of his female nude works.

He maintained close relationships with contemporary Florentine artists, including Michele Gordigiani, Stefano Ussi, Vittorio Corcos, and the sculptor Domenico Trentacoste.

Among his sitters were aristocrats such as the Marchesa Corsi Salviati, Frederick Stibbert (1904), and Count Alfonso Litta, as well as members of the bourgeoisie and intellectuals including Renato Fucini, Telemaco Signorini, Mark Twain (1904, Henry Ford Museum),[a][8][9] Antonio Puccinelli, and Giacomo Puccini, whom he portrayed twice.

Around the turn of the century, he also addressed religious themes, notably the 1902 triptych (Annunciation, Nativity, Deposition) for the church of Santa Caterina d’Alessandria in Florence.

He was active in the Società di Belle Arti and promoted exhibitions such as the Mostra dell’Arte Toscana (1905).

In 1911 he retired from artistic life and moved to Maiano, near Fiesole. He died in Florence on 30 March 1933 and was buried in Cimitero di Soffiano.

Family

Edoardo Gelli, Ida Marchesini on the terrace (1888)

Gelli was married to Ida Marchesini (Florence, 1862–1927), a sculptor and pupil of Domenico Trentacoste. Singer and chansonnier Odoardo Spadaro was Ida's cousin on her mother Mary Marchesini's side.

They had one daughter, Anna (born 1892), who married Andrea Piegaja, owner of the Royal Victoria Hotel in Pisa.

Exhibitions

He participated in numerous exhibitions, including:

Works

Works by Gelli are held in:

Notes

  1. ↑ This portrait was painted to be shown at Saint Louis Exposition on "Mark Twain" Day

References

  1. ↑ "Lavori di restauro allo storico hotel Royal Victoria, anche nelle suite" [Restoration works at the historic Hotel Royal Victoria, also in the suites]. Il Tirreno (in Italian). 4 January 2022. Retrieved 22 April 2026.
  2. 1 2 Francesca Bianchi (7 March 2018). "The lion skin arriving from Siam, passing through the "Victoria"" (PDF). La Nazione. p. 17. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  3. ↑ See AKL.
  4. 1 2 Ascenzi, Anna; Di Felice, Maila; Tumino, Raffaele (2008). Santa giovinezza!: lettere di Luigi Bertelli e dei suoi corrispondenti, 1883–192. Fonti e documenti (in Italian). Brugine: Alfabetica Edizion. p. 94. ISBN 9788890250934.
  5. ↑ The New School of Italian Painting and Sculpture, by James Jackson Jarves, Harper's Monthly, Volume 60, Number 358; March 1880, page 487.
  6. ↑ Chelazzi, Giuliano (2022). Lucca. Le Ville, Gita a Collodi: Nuova Guida Pratica (in Italian). Casa Editrice Bonechi. p. 47.
  7. ↑ Notable paintings by Foreign Artists at the St. Louis Fair, The Perry Magazine, Volume 6, by Eugene Ashton Perry, page 471.
  8. ↑ Orth, Ralph H.; Clemens, S. L. (Fall 2003). "George Gregory Smith and Mark Twain: Florence, 1903–1904". Mark Twain Journal. 41 (2): 27–36.
  9. ↑ Orth, Ralph H.; Clemens, S. L. (Spring 2003). "George Gregory Smith and Mark Twain: Florence, 1903–1904". Mark Twain Journal. 41 (1): 11. JSTOR 41641530.

Sources

  • De Gubernatis, Angelo (1889–1892). Dizionario degli artisti italiani viventi (in Italian). Florence.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Boetticher, Friedrich von (1891). "Gelli, Eduardo". Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (in German).
  • Willard, Ashton Rollins (1902). History of Modern Italian Art.
  • Callari, Luigi (1909). La pittura italiana contemporanea (in Italian). Rome. pp. 353–354.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Thieme, Ulrich; Becker, Felix (1920). "Gelli, Edoardo". Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler (in German). Vol. 13. Leipzig: Seemann.
  • Gelli, Jacopo (1934). Edoardo Gelli pittore (in Italian). Livorno: Stabilimento Editoriale Toscano.
  • Comanducci, Agostino Mario (1945). Dizionario Illustrato dei pittori, disegnatori e incisori italiani moderni e contemporanei (in Italian). Milan.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • The Bureau of the Royal Household (2005). Grand Palace, Bangkok Thailand. Thai Watana Panich Press. pp. 132–133.
  • Fondazione Centro Studi sull’Arte Licia e Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti. "Gelli Edoardo". Archivio Storico Artisti Lucchesi (in Italian).
  • Miccichè, Elio (2013). "Lite fra il Principe di Manganelli ed Edoardo Gelli per la non verosimiglianza di due ritratti" (PDF). Incontri (in Italian). II (5).
  • Benzi, Fabio (2018). "Puccini e le arti". Per sogni e per chimere. Giacomo Puccini e le Arti Visive (PDF) (in Italian). Lucca: Fondazione Ragghianti. pp. 19–34.
  • Panajia, Alessandro (2018). Soffiano Luogo della memoria e degli affetti (in Italian). Pisa: ETS. pp. 39–42.
  • Bietoletti, Silvestra (2019). "Pittori dell'Italia sabauda nella raccolta di Frederick Stibbert". Stibbert artista e collezionista (in Italian). Florence: Lorenzo de’ Medici Press. pp. 11–23.
  • Galleni, Daniele (2019). "Angiolina Pagliano in Bruno: il ritratto di una donna moderna". Lessico Femminile. Le donne tra impegno e talento 1861–1926 (in Italian). Firenze. pp. 34–38.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edoardo Gelli.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.