Benvenuto Benvenuti (1881-1959) - Pastore con gregge in maremma

Ink drawing on cardboard by Benvenuto Benvenuti. Size 30 cm high and 23 cm wide.
Signed on the front and gallery authentication stamp on the back.
Provenance: private collection.
Benvenuto Benvenuti (Livorno, October 5, 1881 – Livorno, January 15, 1959) was an Italian painter, belonging to the divisionist group of painters.
He studied in Livorno under Lorenzo Cecchi, who taught at the local School of Arts and Trades. Cecchi, like his friend Adolfo Tommasi, inspired the young Benvenuti with the landscapes of the Macchiaioli school. At only fifteen, in 1896, he debuted with his first paintings, following the Macchiaioli technique, also influenced by artists such as Llewelyn Lloyd, Giovanni Fattori, and Telemaco Signorini. The late-Macchiaioli phase ended from the early 1900s, when Benvenuti came into contact in 1902 with Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, promoter and advocate of divisionism. Benvenuti became Grubicy’s most committed pupil and moved to Milan from 1905 to study under his master, up to Grubicy’s death in 1920, of which Benvenuti became heir and testamentary executor.

In 1906 he presented two paintings at the International Exhibition of Milan with Sensazioni luminose [1], and in 1907 he exhibited seven paintings at the Paris exhibition of the Salon des Peintres Divisionistes Italiens organized by Grubicy in Paris with Morning on the Sea, Summer Morning, Autumn Morning, Autumn Evening, Sunset at the End of Spring, and two landscapes.

He fully adopted the “divisionist” technique, which sought new light effects with small strokes of pure colors placed side by side, a approach to which he remained faithful throughout his life, albeit with some pauses and a shift from a more dynamic painting texture to increasingly clear and fine brushstrokes, with saturated colors.

Toward the end of the fifties he was forced to abandon artistic creation due to a progressive and serious form of blindness, in addition to having had a leg amputated.
He died in Livorno on January 15, 1959.

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