Tito Lessi (1858-1917) - Uomo che legge

Tito Lessi (Florence, January 8, 1858 – Florence, February 17, 1917), a man who reads, watercolor on paper, the sole work measures 29x16 cm, signed at the top left, in a frame (Campani Carving, Florence).

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence with Pollastrini and Ciseri, who directed him toward genre and historical painting.
In academic theory, historical painting was considered the highest field of art. This status derived not only from intentions but also from the fact that it was regarded as the most difficult expression of painting, since it required particular skill especially in the iconographic composition of the subject and its expressiveness.
In 1884, invited by the gallerist Sedelmeyer, he moved to Paris, where he lived until 1896. Belonging to this period is the painting Galileo and Viviani, which, exhibited in 1893 at the Salon des Champs-Élysées, was awarded the gold medal (other important recognitions were obtained in Munich and in Leipzig). He returned to Florence in 1896 and continued to paint his subjects, sometimes also repeating them in multiple copies, most of which emigrated to France and Germany, where he enjoyed considerable reputation.
For the Alinari publisher in Florence he realized the illustration of one hundred plates for the prestigious edition of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (1313-1375).