Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908) - In carrozza

Giovanni Fattori (Livorno, September 6, 1825 – Florence, August 30, 1908) in a carriage, dimensions with frame 34x28 cm.
private collection
G. Fattori archive A. Baboni
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Biography
Giovinezza
Giovanni Fattori was born in Livorno on September 6, 1825 (not September 25, as he once claimed, or in 1828, as he himself declared twice, albeit with some hesitation, to appear younger). His mother was the Florentine Lucia Nannetti, 'a good woman who believed in God and the Saints' (using his own words), while his father's name was Giuseppe Fattori.

Rinaldo, Giuseppe's eldest son and owner of a prosperous bank of business always in Livorno, was about fifteen years older than Giovanni and established a special relationship with him, like a father to a son. For this reason, Giovanni Fattori, having abandoned his elementary school studies, went to work at his brother's bank of business, where he nonetheless learned to read and write. However, Giovanni soon revealed an innate talent for drawing: after sensing his artistic inclinations, his somewhat disadvantaged family entrusted the young man to Giuseppe Baldini's private school, the best and 'only' artist in the city. Nevertheless, he was not a good teacher for Fattori, who would later remember him as a frivolous and vain man: after becoming aware of the futility of his studies, he moved to Florence and enrolled at the Accademia di belle arti di Firenze, where he studied lazily under Giuseppe Bezzuoli.

Many were his study companions, all of the same age and social background, united by lively democratic sentiments and extremely supportive of each other. These included Costantino Mosti, his first roommate in Florence; Odoardo Lalli, with whom he shared studies for a time after moving to Via della Pergola following the premature death of Mosti; Alfonso, Clarissa, Penelope, and Amalia Nardi; Verulo and Alcibiade Bartorelli; Enrico and Nicola Kutufá; Ferdinando and Lucia Baldesi. The group also included a certain Giordanengo, Giovanni Paganucci (who shared an attic with Fattori in Via Nazionale around 1855), Ferdinando Buonamici, and Luigi Bechi (future visitors, along with Fattori, of the Caffè Michelangiolo): as Dario Durbè observed, these are 'names capable today of awakening only a faint echo in the mind of a local history enthusiast, yet important for reconstructing moments of exceptional significance in the artist's sensitivity'.

Florence intoxicated me: I saw many artists, but I understood nothing; they all seemed talented, and I got so carried away that the thought of having to start studying frightened me.
Giovanni Fattori


Giovanni Fattori, Self-portrait (1854); oil on canvas, 59×47 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence. This is Fattori's first significant artistic experience, where he chooses to depict himself with a relaxed and lively attitude.
Thanks to Giuseppe Giusti's intercession, obtained through a family friend, Fattori even managed to appear in the exclusive circle to which Bezzuoli was about to give private lessons. This did not go unnoticed by Florentine society at the time, especially considering Bezzuoli's professional prestige (who, now at the height of his fame, was not at all eager to dedicate himself to teaching) and Fattori's social situation, which must have appeared as 'a son of good common people, even if they had reached some comfort' (Durbè).

Due to this clash with the high society of Florence, Fattori took on a rebellious and fiery character, and among his comrades, he quickly gained a reputation as the most subversive student of the school, as Telemaco Signorini testifies in his 'Caricaturisti e caricaturati,' stating that the pranks and misdeeds committed by Fattori in those years were worthy of being included in 'a volume of many pages.' In any case, despite his overflowing vivacity, Fattori managed to complete his studies regularly in 1852 (though not particularly brilliantly), thanks to the teaching of Gazzarrini (elements), Servolini (drawing from statues), De Fabris (perspective), Paganucci (anatomy), and finally Pollastrini (free school of the nude). Curiously, he was not a great connoisseur of art history, as he believed that approaching such knowledge was problematic for the free expression of his artistic sensibility.

Well, in my own opinion, apart from knowing how to write a little, I was perfectly ignorant—and I cleverly added—that thanks to God, I kept only the art upon me without knowing it, nor do I still know it.
Giovanni Fattori

High School Diploma

Giovanni Fattori, Lo staffato (1880); oil on canvas, 90×130 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
With the rise to the papal throne of Pius IX, the student population began to be stirred by intense nationalist and revolutionary ferment. Fattori himself was involved, who, inflamed by youthful ardor, enlisted as a messenger for the Party of Action and traveled through Tuscany distributing 'incendiary leaflets' similar to flyers. He even considered enlisting as a volunteer, although this plan was never carried out because he could not overcome his parents' opposition; nonetheless, the tumultuous Risorgimento epic left a profound mark on Fattori's imagination.

After the end of the Risorgimento events and the development of a political consciousness, Fattori returned to painting, approaching it with a bohemian spirit: "I did, he says, the true life of the bohemian (sic) without posing and without knowing it [...] out of pure necessity," he would later say. Driven by the presence of Austria in Tuscany and by the desire to distance himself from Bezzoliana painting, still within the academic tradition, Fattori became a regular visitor to the Michelangiolo café, a tavern chosen as a meeting place by various Florentine artists and patriots. This was a period of "joyful, carefree life without knowing what tomorrow would bring," also made cheerful by his friendship with Settimia Vannucci, with whom he would marry in 1860. Fattori himself, speaking of his future wife, recounts the cholera epidemic that decimated the city in 1854, the year of their engagement (the same Settimia, though not succumbing, was a victim), and his pressing financial difficulties, which led him to become active as a caricature-lithographer. Meanwhile, after the debut of his Self-Portrait (1854), Fattori experimented with a new expressive technique, called the stain.


Giovanni Fattori, French Soldiers of '59 (1859); oil on canvas, 16x32 cm, private collection, Milan
In 1861, he painted the Portrait of his cousin Argia, another prominent work, while the following year he created The Italian Camp at the Battle of Magenta, a painting for which Fattori was able to benefit from a sum of money made available through a competition to personally go to the battlefield of Magenta, in Lombardy. However, these days were overshadowed by a very serious family tragedy: Settimia had contracted tuberculosis, a disease that led to her death in 1867. Despite the mourning, during these years Fattori managed to definitively refine his skills as a painter, producing a series of works that would have a significant impact, exploring the more concrete and everyday aspects of reality. This stylistic evolution was also contributed to by Diego Martelli, a guardian figure of the so-called 'School of Castiglioncello,' which Fattori approached in July 1867: besides becoming a close friend of Martelli, Fattori created many works in the Maremma countryside, such as Assault and Bovine at the Cart. After a stay in Rome in 1872, he produced works with a verist, native flavor, even Viale Animato (consider the three versions of Posta al Campo or the two drafts of Viale Animato), which earned him the favor of his contemporaries.[1]


Giovanni Fattori, The Italian Field at the Battle of Magenta (1862); oil on canvas, 240×348 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
Since 1862, Fattori began to gain the attention of Francesco and Matilde Gioli and to frequent their villa in Vallospoli, which was lively with a rich cultural atmosphere that certainly benefited him. He also drew some inspiration from his stay in Paris, where he stayed between May and June 1875 as a guest of Federico Zandomeneghi; however, he soon showed a natural aversion to Impressionist painting, which was undoubtedly the true novelty of the period, harboring a deep dislike especially towards Camille Pissarro. It was during these years that his reputation as a 'strong realist' was established, confirmed by awards won at various exhibitions: in 1870 in Parma; in 1873 in Vienna and London; in 1875 in Santiago, Chile; in 1876 in Philadelphia; in 1880 in Melbourne; in 1887 in Dresden; and in 1889 in Cologne. One of his paintings, specifically Quadrato di Villafranca, was admired by King Umberto I and purchased by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. Meanwhile, he fell hopelessly in love with Amalia Nollemberger, a nineteen-year-old German woman serving Matilde Gioli as a tutor: the passion ignited by the young woman was so intense that it marked a turning point in Fattori's art.

Fattori's recognition was also evidenced by his appointment as a corresponding member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence in 1869 and as an honorary painting professor in 1880. Despite these titles, he never held an official role within the Academy and always received modest salaries, to the point that he was forced to dedicate himself to private painting lessons for noble families in Florence. This activity increased both his earnings and his reputation, and Fattori found himself appreciating that abominable 'caste aristocracy' which until then he had viewed negatively due to political opposition and the limited circles he had frequented. This influence was undoubtedly very positive and stimulating, so much so that during these years we observe another turning point in Fattori's painting. Meanwhile, he also began working as an etcher, producing a total of no less than two hundred plates.

In 1882, he stayed with Prince Tommaso Corsini at the estate of Marsiliana, in the Grosseto Maremma. On that occasion, the artist, impressed by the rugged and wild nature and the faces of the butteri marked by hard work in the fields, drew inspiration for some paintings: The branding of foals, The sheep jump, The rest.[3]

Among his last students are Giovanni Marchini, with whom he later never loses contact, and Giovanni Malesci, who stays close to him in the final years, from 1903 to 1908, becoming the greatest supporter of the master's memory.


Giovanni Fattori, Movements of Troops, 10 x 26 cm, private collection, Milan
Fattori's fame had now reached its peak, and it was with emotion that the secretary of the Venice Biennale announced the presence of 'Papa Fattori, true soul of a true artist' at the fifth edition of the international exhibition. Energized by the recognition he had gained, Fattori worked tirelessly, and he sent numerous paintings to various exhibitions across Europe. Besides the Venice Biennale, Fattori also exhibited in Berlin (1896), Dresden (1897), Munich, and Paris (1900, at the Exposition universelle), earning accolades and awards. His personal life was tumultuous: on June 4, 1891, he married Marianna Bigazzi after an eight-month cohabitation (a marriage also motivated by the need to facilitate that of his stepdaughter Giulia with the Uruguayan painter Domingo Laporte). However, Bigazzi died on May 1, 1903; in 1907, Fattori married a friend, Fanny Marinelli, who also died prematurely on May 3, 1908, and whom he portrayed in the Portrait of the Third Wife. Now elderly, the painter did not marry again and chose to enjoy the company of his students, who contributed to a cheerful spirit. Special mention is deserved for Adele Galeotti, with whom he painted on Lake Trasimeno, Enedina Pinti (with whom he went to Bauco and San Rossore in 1904-1905), and Anita Brunelli, with whom Fattori hoped to paint together on the Livorno coast.