Giovanni Romagnoli

Quotations of Giovanni Romagnoli

The market for Giovanni Romagnoli’s paintings and sculptures is predominantly regional (Emilia Romagna). Medium-sized paintings with female nudes and still lifes of flowers have quotations between 2,000 euros and 6,000 euros, and the same is true for bronze sculptures of moderate size. Should particularly large or interesting canvases or sculptures appear at auction, much higher figures could be reached.

These are only indicative quotations, in fact they depend on several factors including period, subject, size and technique. We recommend that you send us a photo of your work by Giovanni Romagnoli to get a free, up-to-date estimate.

Biography

Giovanni Romagnoli was born in Faenza in 1893 into an upper middle-class family. From a young age, however, he moved to Bologna to cultivate his painting skills. In the Emilia capital he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, taking courses from the verista and later liberty painter Domenico Ferri and Augusto Majani, a symbolist artist and illustrator.

His pictorial language pays particular attention to the study of color and plastic rendering, making himself the interpreter of a personal post-impressionism with an eye toward the Renaissance masters, especially in figure paintings, a subject on which the painter specializes.

A gentle chromaticism between Impressionism and Venetian tonalism.

The artist participated in three editions of the Roman Secession: in 1914 he presented Still Life; in 1915 he exhibited Concert and Spring; while in 1916 he offered two figure subjects Woman in Robe and Figure of a Woman. The painter portrays subjects in intimate and familiar attitudes with light but at the same time vigorous tones. The female figures are often absorbed in their own thoughts, and the form blends with the surroundings characterized by gentle tonal passages, laden with Impressionist suggestions, but also with the teachings of Venetian tonalism.

The study of shadows and light among the textural brushstrokes.

After the interruption of World War I, he returned to exhibit in 1922 at the Spring Florentine with nine works among which we mention Reflection of the Sun , Convalescent Child, Controluce, Summer Fruit, Verdazzurro and Harmony in Three Tones. Also in 1922 he was invited to the Venice Biennale with After the Bath. The painter will also be present at the next edition of the lagoon exposition with a solo exhibition of nineteen works among which we find Bather, Oranges, MALE HEAD, Model, Sleep, Stop, Kitten, Dancer and Summer. The artist in her painting investigates the effects of light, but especially the bewitching effects of shadows. The soft female figures and still lifes are characterized by textural brushstrokes that evoke suggestions of the painting of Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard.

American fame

The painter began to achieve much success, especially in America, winning the Pittsburgh Carnegie Prize in 1924 and exhibiting in the U.S. city until 1950. He will also be asked to fresco a hall at the University of Pittsburgh in 1949, where the artist chooses to paint the world’s first female graduate, Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia. This relationship with America would remain stable for much of his career; in fact, he would receive several commissions from U.S. collectors.

Sculptural experimentation and intimist painting in his later years

After the public acclaim he received, another solo exhibition was set up at the Second Rome Quadriennale in 1935 with no less than thirty-eight works in which we find the oils Fiori, Piccolo nudo, Tre pesche, Fiordalisi e garofani and Sheherazade. Also included in this exhibition are sculptural works, an activity to which he devoted himself from the 1930s onward, such as the terracottas Acrobat, Hebe, Portrait of Mrs. Homer Saint Gaudens, Zoraide and Portrait of a Man.

During the third and fourth decades of the twentieth century his poetics veers toward a more intimist path colored by shades laden with melancholy, the gaudy colors fade and the volumetries soften.

His presence is also attested at the Third Roman Quadrennial in 1939 with six works two Still lifes, Susanna, Flowers, Portrait of my mother and the plaster Pomona. From here on, his participation in national exhibitions will become less frequent, leaving room for his teaching career, which he undertook from the 1920s, becoming the holder of the chair of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Modena and then at that of Bologna, a position he held until 1963.

However, the painter would paint until the 1960s, producing works purely of a private nature, where the subjects became increasingly evanescent. He disappears in Bologna in 1976.

Emanuela Di Vivona