Ezechiele Acerbi

Ezechiele Acerbi quotations

Ezechiele Acerbi’s paintings, which are rare on the market, include landscapes and views in an Impressionist style, painted between 1880 and 1910, with valuations ranging from £1,200 to £4,500.

Smaller works on media such as cardboard or board have lower estimates, generally between £250 and £700.

The figures are indicative and depend on numerous factors, such as format, technique and subject matter. Our experts are available to provide free and accurate valuations.

Biography

Ezechiele Acerbi, nephew of the painter Pasquale Massacra, trained at the Civic School of Painting in Pavia, where he studied under Giacomo Trécourt. In his early years, the young artist’s style was mainly characterised by genre paintings of great character, inspired by life in Pavia and Milan. In fact, in the 1880s, he managed to move to the Lombard capital, where he supported himself by giving painting lessons and making decorated fans, which allowed him to stay there for just under ten years.

He sent Le mendicanti (The Beggars) to the Turin Exhibition in 1878, while at the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Milan in 1881 he presented Serio, se vuoi il ritratto (Serious, if you want the portrait). Returning to Pavia at the end of the 1880s, Ezechiele Acerbi devoted himself to a body of work entirely focused on the Pavia landscape and the most characteristic views of the city, where he set all his sketches of everyday life.

This thematic update was also accompanied by a pictorial renewal: the colour, which was no longer influenced by Giacomo Trécourt, was applied with quick, loose brushstrokes, giving rise to a graceful and brilliant impressionism, rich in daring solutions. A particularly fresh touch, also given by the original colour combinations, characterises all his more mature work.

In 1898, he exhibited La preghiera (The Prayer) at the National Exhibition in Turin, a very delicate painting characterised by a commendable fluidity and emotional intensity. Humble characters populate everyday scenes such as L’orologiaio (The Watchmaker), La vigilia della Sagra (The Eve of the Festival), La famiglia del contado (The Country Family), La ricreazione di una monaca (A Nun’s Recess), Il veterano (The Veteran), La balia di Delia (Delia’s Nanny) and Ore quiete (Quiet Hours).

His life, characterised above all in his old age by financial difficulties, forced him to take on other jobs alongside that of painter. He devoted himself to photography, drawing and portraiture, managing to support himself until the 1910s with paintings such as Autoritratto (Self-Portrait), La zia del pittore (The Painter’s Aunt), La signora Letizia Campari (Mrs Letizia Campari) and Il Conte San Giuliani (Count San Giuliani). Most of these paintings are now in the Civic Museums of Pavia. The artist died in his hometown in 1920 at the age of seventy.