Studio: international art (34.1905)

Two Italian Draughtsmen

beside that of France, England, Germany, and
the United States.

Alfredo Baruffi, whose conceptions are delicate
and fanciful, while his execution is both graceful
and judicious, has a distinct personality of his own,
differing widely from that of Alberto Martini ;
and his co-operation also might be of inestimable
advantage to the editors of the illustrated periodicals
of Rome and Milan. Probably, however, his very
name is unknown to them; for his artistic activity,
in its best sense, has hitherto only found vent at a
few exhibitions, and his less characteristic work
only has been published in the comic journals and
other ephemeral literature of his native town.

Alfredo Baruffi was born at Bologna thirty years
ago. From the age of six he attended the public
schools, until at nineteen he qualified as an
accountant and obtained employment in the
Bolognese savings-bank, where at the present
time he is occupied for seven hours daily. From
his earliest years he has had to assume the odd
character of the homo-duplex, and reconcile book-
keeping with painting, thus exhibiting a typical
case of artistic psychology. For his father's gift of
a box of colours, when the child was only seven,
aroused in him an ardent desire to reproduce on
paper all he saw around him, and this passion he
indulged during his holidays throughout all his
years of schooling. Thus for thirteen years the
winter, spring, and summer were given up to book-
work, while in the autumn he devoted himself to
his beloved paint-brush, which he wielded in
obedience to his own natural instincts, for Baruffi
has been entirely self-taught, even in the rudiments
of his art.
138

His economic independence being assured by his
appointment in the savings-bank, Baruffi felt the
attraction towards art more strongly than ever, and
he determined not to be a mere amateur. Every
spare hour, even to a great extent those which
should have been devoted to sleep, were conse-

BOOK-PLATE BY A. BARUFFI