Vittorio Avondo (Turin 1836 - Turin 1910)

Vittorio Avondo (Turin 1836–1910) came under the influence of Antonio Fontanesi, the leading Piedmontese landscape painter of the day, at an extremely young age. In 1855 he was in Paris, where he came into direct contact with the work of such Barbizon School painters as Rousseau and Daubigny and of Corot, whose painting, for Italian as for French artists of the 19th century, remained a prime source of inspiration, producing a vast range of diverse artistic solutions. The Barbizon landscape school of the 1830s was of evident importance not only for painting in other parts of Italy, Naples in particular, but also for the work of Vittorio Avondo. Avondo’s stay in Paris, until his return to Turin in 1857, was thus fundamental to his artistic development.
In close contact with the other Piedmontese painters of the Rivalta School, Avondo reworked his various artistic influences into his own characteristic vision. Over the decades his art grew trimmer, without redundancy, essential, not lacking in subtle melancholy.