By Anne Leader
Giuseppe De Nittis was born on 25 February 1846 in the Puglian city of Barletta. Like other 19th-century artists, De Nittis worked out of doors, emulating the plein-air aesthetic and varied light effects of the French Impressionists and Italian Macchiaioli.
De Nittis worked in oil, pastel, and as a printmaker. He achieved both national and international fame and spent time working in Rome, Florence, and Paris, where he settled permanently in 1868. He did return to Italy during the Franco-Prussian War between 1870 and 1873 but returned to Paris where he worked under exclusive contract with the dealer Adolphe Goupil and later for patrons in London. He died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1884.
Winter Landscape, c. 1880. National Gallery, London.
Self-Portrait.
Place des Pyramids, c. 1875. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Che Freddo!, c. 1870.