Anchise Picchi (1911-2007) - Ritorno dalla caccia

Anchise Picchi was born in Crespina, Pisa, on April 1, 1911, to Gaetano Picchi and Isolina Cappagli. Even as a very young boy he showed marked abilities and notable passion for drawing. At the age of five he began drawing the first figures of animals and of family members, in charcoal, on the walls of the farmhouse where he lived, in Le Capanne. At the age of 9 he loses his father, right at the end of World War I. He moves with his family to Fauglia. He meets Francesco — who will die two years later — and Luigi Gioli, becoming friends with the latter, who often invites him into his studio in the turret of the villa and for whom he executes a small head carved in ash wood, receiving in return a fine painting of a fair in Maremma. Around the mid-1920s he moves to Collesalvetti and in 1923–1924 he meets Carlo and Luigi Servolini. He then attends, in Pisa, the school for painters and decorators, where he meets and becomes a friend of the late sculptor Alvio Vaglini. He is a friend and companion of the sculptor Bertini, the painter Salvatore Pizzarello and Fortunato Bellonzi, future President of the Rome Quadriennale. During visits to the Rigacci art shop in Florence, he meets Pietro Annigoni (for whom he will later make a beautiful walnut-wood portrait). He also frequents the skilled painter Carla Celesia of Vegliasco, who will introduce him, very young, to Galileo Chini, and who will give him, before her death (1938), numerous canvases and tools: lamp for the easel, easel, paints, frames, etc. In 1936 the family moves again, now to Grosseto, where the studies for the Diploma of Qualification for the Teaching of Drawing and Art History are resumed. During his time at the Liceo Artistico and the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he meets and becomes friends with the physicist Oreste Piccioni, of the Enrico Fermi group. He also meets the painter Faccenda and the woodcarver Gentili, as well as the musician Alberto Montanari. In 1938 the family is again in Pisa and in the same year Anchise moves to Greece, to Thessaloniki, as a teacher in the Italian Schools Abroad. In ’41 he teaches in Siena and in ’42 he is again at work in Collesalvetti and resumes frequenting Luigi Gioli. In 1956 he opens a studio in Livorno which he maintains until around the 1980s, becoming a friend of the major representatives of the Labronico Group: Natali (for whom he will execute a fine sculpted portrait), Romiti, Filippelli, Lomi, Michelozzi, Landozzi, Rontini, etc. In 1961 his mother Isolina dies. In 1978 he was invited by the Municipality of Florence to hold a retrospective exhibition of painting and sculpture in Palazzo Strozzi, during the month of April. In 2001 the Municipality of Collesalvetti organized a large exhibition of painting and sculpture at the Villa Carmignani Exhibition Center. In 2005 the Municipality of Crespina awarded him Honorary Citizenship and the Gold Medal for artistic merit. The Municipality of Collesalvetti also awarded him the Gold Medal in April 2007 for his work in the field of art. From the mid-1970s the artist retires permanently to his studio in Collesalvetti. He dies at his home on November 13, 2007. Oil painting on panel signed at the bottom right and on the back a certificate of authenticity signed and dated 1967. Dimensions of the painting 35x50; the frame is treated as a complimentary accessory to the work; no claims accepted. Shipped by traceable express courier with careful packaging.

Estimate:£1.69

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