Hermann Corrodi

The indication to paint “according to nature” was given to Hermann by his father: the Italian-Swiss painter Salomon Corrodi, specialized precisely in views. Later the master completed his studies in Switzerland under the guidance of Alexandre Calame and then in Rome following the courses of the Academy of San Luca.

Calame’s magisterium became fundamental for its distinctly romantic character which helps to explain a leitmotif of all Corrodi’s production: the compelling compositional and lighting direction that makes all his compositions irresistible, widely rewarded by the market since his times.

The successes and international acquaintances, in fact, quickly brought him into contact with the great masters and with the best clients – aristocrats and entrepreneurs – of his time. In 1872 he stayed in Paris by joining Jean Léon Gerome and Ernest Meissonnier, then in London as a guest of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema: three painters who can rightly be considered the real protagonists of the 19th century international market.

At the same time, in order to maintain relations with the wealthy Central European client, he took the habit of moving his winter studio to Germany, to Baden Baden and Homburg. With the second half of the seventies his repertoire of views – characterized by the love for Rome and Venice – is enriched thanks to trips to Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Montenegro and Corsica.

His presence at national and international exhibitions is almost constant. Among the other exhibits we remember the universal exhibition in Vienna in 1873 where he won the gold medal with Wood of pines, the Salon de Paris in 1889 where he exhibited Capri and the exhibition at the British Royal Academy in 1894 where he sent Storm in the desert in Egypt. .

The sales success is evidenced by the purchase by William II of the sacred fountain in front of the mosque of Omar in Jerusalem while in the collections of the Queen of England are preserved, among others, View of the Roman Campagna, Queen Victoria on the terrace of villa Palmieri, View of the lagoon in Chioggia and Sirens in a cave in Capri.

In Italian museums there are Napoleon’s tower in Corsica at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and View of the Mestre lagoon at the Accademia di San Luca also in Rome. Hermann Corrodi’s desire was to create the Corrodi Studies between Piazza del Popolo and Ponte Margherita, also dedicated to the memory of his brother Arnoldo who died prematurely, with rooms suitable for ateliers and temporary exhibitions but the death that took him in 1905 prevented him from completing the ambitious project.