DOI issue:
No. 249 (December 1913)
DOI article:Brosch, L.: An italian painter: Beppe Ciardi
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21208#0206
Beppe Ciardi
saddle, his progress towards his ultimate goal has
been steady and unfaltering, without any of that
temerity or indecision which so often proves an
obstacle to the painter of weaker fibre. To-day we
see him in the full tide of his manhood, able to
look back upon a rich harvest of successful accom-
plishment.
Beppe Ciardi is a native of Venice, where he
was born in the year 1875, and, as already indicated
above, he began to paint at an early age. In fact
he was barely ten years old when, in the atelier of
his father, Guglielmo Ciardi, he first took brush in
hand, and he might soon have developed into a
prodigy, as sometimes happens in the case of off-
shoots from an artistic stock. But the father, a
man of an uncommonly energetic, determined nature,
absolutely refused to allow anything of that sort.
Perhaps this distinguished landscape painter of the
old school was thinking of the early and not alto-
gether smooth stages of his own career, or what
among artists is called the “ thorny path ” ; at all
events his son Beppe had to go through the regular
school training, finishing off at the University. That
his studies in natural science failed to quench his
love for art is of course self-evident, and as a
matter of fact when he was a University student
the spare time left to him from his studies was
employed in painting. Subsequently he joined the
Academy in Venice and diligently practised draw-
ing from the nude and heads under the eminent
painter, Prof. Ettore Tito. Here, without lapsing
into an imitative manner, he acquired a certain
technical foundation for his later figure pictures.
A good example of these is ISaltimbanchi, showing
a troupe of mountebanks giving an exhibition of their
feats of skill on one of the piazzas of Venice, the
dark mass of spectators forming an effective back-
ground to the performers, while the effect of warm
sunlight has been achieved without any undue
forcing of the shadows. This work—which, with
others now reproduced, figured in his collective
exhibition at Venice last year—has been referred to
by a well-known critic as “ veramente l’opera
memorabile d’un maestro.”
“the little mothers” by beppe ciardi
184
saddle, his progress towards his ultimate goal has
been steady and unfaltering, without any of that
temerity or indecision which so often proves an
obstacle to the painter of weaker fibre. To-day we
see him in the full tide of his manhood, able to
look back upon a rich harvest of successful accom-
plishment.
Beppe Ciardi is a native of Venice, where he
was born in the year 1875, and, as already indicated
above, he began to paint at an early age. In fact
he was barely ten years old when, in the atelier of
his father, Guglielmo Ciardi, he first took brush in
hand, and he might soon have developed into a
prodigy, as sometimes happens in the case of off-
shoots from an artistic stock. But the father, a
man of an uncommonly energetic, determined nature,
absolutely refused to allow anything of that sort.
Perhaps this distinguished landscape painter of the
old school was thinking of the early and not alto-
gether smooth stages of his own career, or what
among artists is called the “ thorny path ” ; at all
events his son Beppe had to go through the regular
school training, finishing off at the University. That
his studies in natural science failed to quench his
love for art is of course self-evident, and as a
matter of fact when he was a University student
the spare time left to him from his studies was
employed in painting. Subsequently he joined the
Academy in Venice and diligently practised draw-
ing from the nude and heads under the eminent
painter, Prof. Ettore Tito. Here, without lapsing
into an imitative manner, he acquired a certain
technical foundation for his later figure pictures.
A good example of these is ISaltimbanchi, showing
a troupe of mountebanks giving an exhibition of their
feats of skill on one of the piazzas of Venice, the
dark mass of spectators forming an effective back-
ground to the performers, while the effect of warm
sunlight has been achieved without any undue
forcing of the shadows. This work—which, with
others now reproduced, figured in his collective
exhibition at Venice last year—has been referred to
by a well-known critic as “ veramente l’opera
memorabile d’un maestro.”
“the little mothers” by beppe ciardi
184