Pietro Senno (1831-1904) - Paese

Pietro Senno (1831, Portoferraio, Livorno - 1904 Pisa), Country, an Elban landscape with oxen and a shepherdess, oil on cardboard, 22x33.6 cm the sole work. The work was exhibited at the Exposition of Fine Arts of Florence in May-June 1933, as per label on the back, and it has a provenance from the Sacva gallery of Bologna (as per stamp, also on the back). It bears the name of the old collector (Odoardo Bongi). See the attached images and the documentation will be delivered to the buyer.

Pietro Senno was born in Portoferraio (Isola d’Elba) in 1831 to a well-off family. Very young, he was set on a military career, taking part in the epic Battle of Curtatone in the First Italian War of Independence, as a cadet of the Tuscan Hussars. He later settled in Florence to devote himself to painting. He diligently attended the courses at the Academy of Fine Arts and, under the guidance of Antonio Ciseri, he perfected drawing, improved perspective, and began to use color more appropriately.

Shy and reserved, Pietro Senno did not frequent his contemporaries at the Caffè Michelangiolo, preferring the study of the old masters at the Academy. He later moved on to painting en plein air, becoming an excellent landscape painter, drawing inspiration from Elba, Maremma, the Mugello, and Tuscany in general; he also painted historical scenes and portraits.

He taught at the Academy of Florence and regularly exhibited at the main Italian and foreign exhibitions until the early twentieth century. In 1887 he exhibited at Venice the painting Acqua morta, which aroused the admiration of the public and critics, and is considered one of his best works. Some of his paintings are preserved at the GAM of Florence (Un temporale d’autunno and Tramonto del sole) and in the Pinacoteca Forense of Portoferraio (Isola d’Elba). Senno died in Pisa in 1904, while at the easel he was working on a seascape.