Arnaldo Ferraguti

Arnaldo Ferraguti
Born1862
Died1925(1925-00-00) (aged 62–63)
NationalityItalian
EducationAccademia di Belle Arti of Naples
OccupationPainter

Arnaldo Ferraguti (1862–1925) was an Italian painter and illustrator, often painting genre subjects.

History

He was born in Ferrara but trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Naples, then under the leadership of Domenico Morelli. He befriended the painter Francesco Paolo Michetti and his circle at Francavilla al Mare.

In 1891, he married Olga Treves, granddaughter of the publishers Emilio and Giuseppe Treves and was employed to illustrate their magazine L'Illustrazione Italiana.[1] He erected a villa in Pallanza where he taught painting, and attended salons in the nearby Villa Cordelia of Giuseppe Treves. He died in Forlì in 1925.[2]

Works

In 1887, he exhibited a series of pastel studies in Venice.

Starting in 1890, he submitted his masterwork: a massive (nearly 6 by 3 meter) canvas Alla vanga to various exhibitions, to praise and awards. The canvas depicts a line of peasants, from children to elders, including some barefoot women and children, breaking the soil with spades while nearby the supervisor talks to peasant working women.[3] The scene trumpets a clear affection for the hard-laboring proletarian farmers.[4] It can be contrasted to the less romanticized The Fourth Estate painting (1901) by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo, which portrays workers with no pastoral embellishment.

Other works by Ferraguti include paintings and illustrations for books Illustrations for Cuore by Edmondo De Amicis; Illustrations for Vita dei Campi by Giovanni Verga; in addition tp canvases depicting Madre; Vespero; Bivio; and Prima e poi.[5]

References

  1. ^ Amatangelo, Susan (2024). "Chapter 10. Viewing the South: The Role of Verismo and the Illustrative Arts in Shaping Post-Unification Italian Culture". In Cadel, Francesca; Nastri, Paola (eds.). Italy in the Second Half of the 19th Century: Bridging New Cultures. Vernon Art and Science. pp. 207–8. ISBN 9781648898310.
  2. ^ VerbaniaMuseum short biography.
  3. ^ Alla Vanga is now on display at the Museo del Paesaggio in Verbania-Pallanza.
  4. ^ History of Modern Italian Art, by Ashton Rollins Willard (1902), page 637-639.
  5. ^ La Biennale di Venezia, Volume 2, by Esposizione biennale internazionale d'arte, Biennale di Venezia (2 : 1897), page 109.