Description
ARTIST: Girolamo Gianni (Italian, Malta, 1837 - 1895)
NAME: View of the Bay of Naples
YEAR: 1892
MEDIUM: oil on board
CONDITION: Minor craquelure. Normal wear along edges. No visible inpaint under UV light. Some damages to frame.
SIGHT SIZE: 8 x 14 inches / 20 x 35 cm
FRAME SIZE: 11 x 17 inches / 28 x 43 cm
SIGNATURE: Lower left
NAME VARIANTS: Gerolamo Gianni
SIMILAR ARTISTS: William Page, Franz Richard Unterberger, Frederick Goodall, Giulio Rosati, Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, Peder Mork Monsted, Antonietta Brandeis, Eugene Galien-Laloue, Otto Pilny, Victor Pierre Huguet, Eduard Hildebrandt, Henry Pilleau, Vincenzo Irolli, William James Muller, Albert Goodwin, John Jr Varley
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
SKU#: 116398
WARRANTY: 7 days returns accepted if item doesn't match description
US Shipping $49 + insurance.
Girolamo Gianni (Italian, Malta, 1837 - 1895)
Girolamo Gianni was born in Naples in 1837, the son of Luigi Gianni and Rosa de Luca. Nothing is known of his artistic education, which suggests he may have learned his trade in one of the art workshops common in Naples (and Italy generally) at the time. No early works are known that can be clearly attributable to Girolamo.
Around 1862, he married a Neapolitan girl, Giovanna Alfaro, who was eleven years younger. In the following few years they had two children, Maria and Livia; and possibly a third, Giuseppe.
In 1866, doubtless sensing an opportunity, he and another Neapolitan artist, Gennaro Donadio, traveled from Naples to Malta via Syracuse on board the passenger ship Napoli. They promptly set up shop at the Europa Hotel in Valletta and distributed leaflets offering their services; with the leaflets also indicating they would be in Malta for only four months. Some six months later, and after some success evidently, they left Malta for Syracuse (and Naples) on April 10, 1867.
Gianni (but not Donadio) decided in short order to return to, and settle in, Malta. On July 28, 1868, Gianni and his family arrived in Malta on board the Campdoglio. Over the next twenty years, he built a very successful career painting scenes of Malta and the ships of the Royal Navy. The paintings were sold in large part to members of the Royal Navy serving with the Malta based Mediterranean fleet. His business was very much enhanced by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, since Malta then also became a stopover point for Royal Navy ships bound for/from the many British colonies east of Suez.
In 1882/83 Gianni travelled to Egypt; a trip which resulted in a series of paintings of Egypt, including a painting of the July 1882 Royal Navy bombardment of Alexandria. A painting of Istanbul by Gianni is also known, so he may have travelled there as well. In due course, Gianni became successful to the point that in 1886, the Duke of Edinburgh, then Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean fleet, commissioned Gianni to paint the ships of the fleet.
At some point, as his standing as an artist increased in Malta, Gianni set himself up as capo scuola, or teacher, of Maltese artists. Luigi Maria Galea and Signora Manche were among his students.
While in Malta, nine more children were added to the Gianni family; Elvira (Mar. 24, 1869), Amelia (June 12, 1871), Gemma (Nov. 26, 1873), Ugo (Feb, 24, 1876), Torquato (Sept. 27, 1878), Attilio (Sept. 29, 1880), Giuseppina (Apr. 30, 1882), Luigi (July 5, 1884), and Ettore (Mar. 2,1887). Gemma, Torquato, Attilio, and Giuseppina died young. Ugo and Ettore went on to become Neapolitan artists.
In 1887, not long after the birth of Ettore, the Gianni family left Malta and returned to Naples; at some point settling in Torre del Greco, a town near Naples. However, even though back in Naples, he continued to paint scenes of Malta, increasingly with the assistance of his two daughters. The paintings were sent for sale to W Watson and Sons, booksellers at 248 Strada Reale in Valletta, who advertised themselves as sole agent of Mr Gianni’s paintings. PaIntings of Maltese scenes, presumably painted by Gianni in Naples, are known dated 1888, 1890, 1891, 1893, and 1894.
Girolamo Gianni died in Torre del Greco, near Naples in late 1895. When news of his death arrived in Malta, he was much praised, with one paper, The Daily Malta Chronicle, noting that “The work will now be continued by his two daughters, who for many years had been their father’s pupils, and later on assistants.” Those two daughters would have to have been Maria and Livia.
Mis-attribution of works by Neapolitan artists signed “Gianni” is quite common, and that includes work by Girolamo Gianni. An analysis of the auction sales data on Girolamo Gianni indicates that to be accepted by the market as a work by Girolamo Gianni (and to achieve the four, five, and six figure prices these works achieve), three criteria must be met. First, the first initial “G” in the signature must have a spiral or swirl, which is instantly recognizable. Second, the piece must be dated, which is seemingly the case with all of Gianni’s authentic works. And third, the signature must be diagonal across a corner. Only oils are known that meet this criteria. Of course, there are rare exceptions, provided the work measures up. For example, a few works are known with horizontal signatures. It remains to be seen whether any gouaches of Malta can be validly established as the work of Gianni.
In past years, and infrequently today, it was common to refer to Gianni as “Giancinto.”Ganado establishes clearly that his first name was Girolamo, although this certainly does not preclude the existence of another artist named Giancinto Gianni during the period.
Late in life Luigi moved to Malta to live with the family of Girolamo. Luigi died in Malta on March 4, 1882; age 82.
This assumes that the signature Gianni used in Malta would have used on his earlier works while in Naples.
Most, if not all of these paintings are in the collection of the UK National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where they are attributed to “Giancinto” Gianni.
While there has been uncertainty about when the Gianni family returned to Naples, Christies, in Sept 2015, sold a painting of Naples and Vesuvius from the sea, signed by Gianni and dated 1887. This painting very much suggests that the Gianni family returned to Naples sometime in 1887.
Ganado notes, “the difference in quality of some of his pictures may be attributable to the fact he had two вЂassistants’ to help him in his work.”
At the baptism of Attilio in September 1880, the godparents were Giuseppe Gianni and Maria Gianni. The baptismal record refers to Maria as “fillia inupta hieronymi,”or a daughter of the immediate family. Interestingly, Giuseppe received no such designation, although my guess, and that is all it is at this point, is that he was a member of the immediate family. And at the baptism of Luigi in July 1884, Livia served as the godmother and was designated fil dini hyeronimif; again, a daughter of the immediate family. These two daughters were in fact the only daughters of sufficient age to have developed the requisite skill to assist Girolamo.
