ROME EXHIBITIONS AT BRAMANTE'S CHIOSTRO
- Reviews of all major exhibitions taking place in the past -

Running Exhibition from November 11th 2004 to February 27th 2005

"The italian impressionist Giuseppe de Nittis"
PALAZZO VENEZIA, ROMA

It has been opened in Rome at the Chiostro del Bramante an anthologic and retrospective exhibition dedicated to Giuseppe de Nittis. It has been chosen for this exhibition the most important works among the whole production of this artist (180 paintings and about 25 woks on paper) and also some unknowns De Nittis has been defined from critics "Southerner in the South, French in Paris and Londoner in London" and today he represents one of the most important step in picture during the nineteenth century in Italy. Already in 1877 Henry Houssaye considered de Nittis "the chief or the master of the new school of the painters who painted en plain air. He has spirit, colour, a real knowledge of the line perspective and the gift of the air perspective". The exhibition opens with the "Self-portrait" (1833), which wants to be an invitation to enter in his house as in his work, and goes developed in nine sections, elaborating a complete and exhaustive journey of his activity. The titles of the sections often come from expressions caught from the painter's note book or from some definitions made by his friends as Edmondo De Goncourt or Jules Clarétie. While in France the impressionists paint the life en plain air and that of ville lumière, de Nittis keeps out to date himself and his training by travelling and noting on different note-books his impressions about landscapes, cities and weather. In exhibition indeed, there are his studies about Nature, done during his numerous stays in Napoli, his concrete esearches about the representation of the light, the paintings dedicated to the Vesuvio, which portray the famous eruption in 1872, the trains at the carriages, the crossing of the English channel to join London with the new Steamboat, and, at least, the drawing room's society life and the feminine beauty. The main part of the exhibition comes from the Local Museum Art Gallery G. de Nittis in Barletta, which has the donation of the artist's works by his wife Léontine. Really important loans come from the Cimac in Milan, from the Museum Revoltella in Trieste, from the Ricci Oddi Gallery in Piacenza, from the Carnavalet Museum in Paris and from many Italian and foreign private collections.