Pietro De Francisco

Pietro De Francisco was born in Palermo in 1873 and trained at the Academy of Fine Arts there, following the teachings of Salvatore Marchesi and Francesco Lojacono, drawing from the former important lessons on perspective, and from the latter the chromatic luminosity that would characterise his landscapes. The young painter made his first attempts in the 1990s, devoting himself to landscape painting during long sessions of painting from life en plein air. At the same time, he studied the human figure in a number of historical essays, displaying a great drawing and chiaroscuro quality.

At the beginning of the 20th century, he won a pension in Rome where he moved, continuing to develop his research in landscape painting, influenced by the symbolist and poetic suggestions from the environment of In Arte Libertas, a group of artists formed in the 1980s led by Nino Costa.

Interested in social themes, he dedicates many paintings to this strand. However, the artist expressed a desire to come into contact with European languages, which is why in 1909 he stayed in Paris where he had the opportunity to meet Claude Monet, who brought him even closer to Impressionist instances and the study of light and colour.

On the auction market, he starts from as low as EUR 50-100 for small drawings and watercolours with a Symbolist theme, up to an auction record in 2003 for a modern Post-Impressionist canvas dedicated to Paris, which fetched EUR 36,000.