‘Italians in Paris – from Boldini to Severini (1870-1930)’ is the title of the exhibition that Galerie Maurizio Nobile Paris and Bottegantica Milan dedicate to the artists who established themselves in Paris during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some twenty works from a private collection will be shown, some of them for the first time. Amongst those artists exhibited will be Giovanni Boldini, Federico Zandomeneghi, Antonio Mancini and Gino Severini.
Given its great creative force, fin de siècle Paris was an unprecedented meeting point for the arts. Swathes of painters, sculptors, writers, poets and musicians from all over Europe arrived in the city. And, naturally, many of them were Italian.
From the second half of the 1800s, the Ville Lumière became a bastion of multiple artistic movements that would disrupt artistic conventions. To consider the efforts of Italian painters is to evaluate their contribution in a country like France as a notable, and indeed challenging, feat. It must not be forgotten that it was Italian artists who would give life to two of the most significant movements of the period to influence the avant-garde: Metaphysics and Futurism.
Some of the artists exhibited such as Boldini, Marchetti and Zandomeneghi, went on to achieve such success in Paris that they went on to spend the rest of their lives in the city; testament to their ability to delight the French esprit ...