Telemaco Signorini (Florence 1835 - Florence 1901)

Telemaco Signorini (Florence 1835–1901), son of a painter, attended the Florentine Accademia delle Belle Arti but was unsatisfied with the teaching there and left in 1855 to join the group of painters known as the Macchiaioli.
From 1856 to 1861, he lived and worked between Venice, La Spezia and Paris, where he became interested in the new Realist movement led by Gustave Courbet. He returned to Paris on two further occasions, in 1873 and 1877, and spent time in England in 1874, 1881 and 1884.
Signorini was also a writer, penning lively controversial pieces in defence of the work of the Macchiaioli. In 1867 he founded, together with Diego Martelli the most enlightened critic of the time, Il Gazzettino delle Arti del Disegno and in 1893 he published Caricaturisti e caricaturati al Caffé Michelangelo.
Between his travels and his meetings with leading representatives of the new 19th-century art movement, particularly Edgar Degas with his lively curiosity, Signorini put to fruit a lifetime of rich cosmopolitan experience.
In his paintings he drew together the various influences of contemporary artistic experimentation, using the technique of impasto in strong, luminous tones. He also produced a large number of etchings.