Lot 59: Giannino Marchig (1897-1983)

Nudo in piedi
signed 'Giannino Marchig' (lower left)
pen, brush and black ink on paper
16 3/4 x 12 1/4 in. (42.8 x 31.8cm.)

GIANNINO MARCHIG (1897 - 1983)

Giannino Marchig, born in Trieste of a Friulian father and Austrian mother, is an evocative figure from the complex north Italian artistic world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries - an era and a region where the techniques of the Italian Old Masters and the heritage of the German Romantic period still held sway.

From early childhood, Marchig showed a passion for drawing and painting and, at the age of 12, he began his artistic studies. His first schools were the studios of the prominent artists in Trieste, a city with a great intellectual and mercantile vitality and where Italian culture mixed with the Austrian and northern European taste. Marchig soon developed a passion for the theatre and in 1914, at the age of 17; he received a commission to decorate a small private theatre in Trieste.

In 1915, at the start of the Great War, he left Trieste and, after spending some time in Venice, arrived in Tuscany. Here he lived several months in the Monastery of Monte Oliveto, wandering through the region always with his sketchbook to hand. Many drawings were produced documenting Tuscany in the 1920s.

He settled in Florence and was appointed, at a very young age, Professor of Drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts. Here he began a series works which reflected his study of Old Masters and he immersed himself in Florentine artistic life.

In the 1930s, he entered the intellectual circle of the Tatti where he met Bernard Berenson, and began restoration and publishing art editions with Electa. He won important prizes and showed throughout Italy, as well as in Paris, Berlin and other European capitals as well as in the USA. His major works of this period are portraits [as offered here] and theatrical images. He also decorated the Agriculture section of the Italian Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937 with the large fresco - 'Autumn' [a large oil sketch for which is offered here].
In his early fifties, following a spiritual crisis, he abandoned painting and left Italy for Switzerland where he met his wife Jeanne. They settled in Geneva, where he dedicated himself to restoration and travelled worldwide to restore masterpieces for museums and important price collectors.

His passion for painting never completely disappeared and, following a visit to the Basel carnival in the late 1960s and encouragement from his wife, he began to paint once more after a break of 30 years producing several paintings on the theme 'Carnival and Masks' as well as three life-sized paintings entitled 'In search of time past'.
All proceeds from the sale of these works will be donated to the Marchig Animal Welfare Trust founded in his memory by his wife, Jeanne. The object of this registered charity, based in Scotland, is 'to protect animals and to promote and encourage practical work in preventing animal cruelty and the relief of animal suffering'. Further details on the charity can be found on its website www.marchigtrust.org.

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