Guglielmo Baldassini (1885-1952) - Paesaggio

Guglielmo Baldassini, landscape painter, born in Genoa in 1885, studied for three years at the Brera Academy in Milan. Soon he began painting and studying on his own, dedicating himself, in particular, to landscape and seascape. He began to exhibit in various national and international shows, including numerous exhibitions at the Società Promotrice di Belle Arti di Genova. He maintained close ties with the Milanese artistic world and, in 1913, one of his paintings, presented at the celebratory exhibition of the fortieth anniversary of the Milanese Artistic Family, was purchased by the King of Italy. Baldassini was also an excellent etcher, and this technique gave him some notoriety. From 1916 he began to exhibit in various European capitals: London, Paris, etc. Subsequently he went to Tokyo where some of his etchings were purchased for the Imperial Museum. Still with this technique he produced harbor and town views. In 1915 he became an honorary member of the Brera Academy. In 1922 he participated in the Florence Spring Exhibition with the works The Little Church of San Biagio in Friuli and Life in the Port of Genoa. From about 1930 he began painting again in Genoa, then started a fruitful and long period of exhibitions in South America, where, moreover, a large part of his artistic production is dispersed. Guglielmo Baldassini can be regarded as a great marine painter in the wake of the 19th-century tradition, whose work appears updated by the very effective use of a tactile brushstroke and by a chromatic play of lights and transparencies that make some of his sea-themed works unique. His works are preserved in important public collections in Italy and abroad, as well as in prestigious private collections. It measures 44 cm by 34 cm and is an oil on cardboard, 58 by 47 with frame.