By Anne Leader
Painter Antonio Donghi was born on 16 March 1897 in Rome, where he studied at the Istituto di Belle Arti just prior to serving in World War I. After the war, he found inspiration in traditional figure painting, and critics praised him for his realism, clarity, and subjects. His figures display a cool detachment that has been likened to the works of Post-Impressionist Georges Seurat and Symbolist Henri Rousseau. Though he found success and exhibited widely in the 1920s and early ‘30s, winning 1st Honorable Mention in 1927 at the International Exhibition held at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, his work fell out of favor. His interest in the figure was seen as old-fashioned and out-of-touch in a post-war world. He would not find favor again among critics and art historians until the 1980s, two decades after his death on 16 July 1963 in Rome.
Reference: Matthew Gale. “Donghi, Antonio.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
The Baptism, 1930. Turin, Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
Woman in a Cafe, 1931. Venice, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’ Pesaro, inv. 899
The Juggler, 1926
Carnival, 1931
Circus, 1927
Laundresses
Song, 1934. Private collection.
Self-Portrait, 1942
Portriat of a Woman in a Hat, 1931
Note: if you know the whereabouts of the unattributed paintings, please let us know!