Mario Puccini (28 June 1869,

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

– 18 June 1920,

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

) was an Italian

Post-Impressionist Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...

painter who specialized in landscapes and village scenes. He was sometimes referred to as "The Italian Van Gogh"."Tuscany's Other Puccini"
@ Magenta (Florence).

Biography

His father was a baker. He worked in his father's bakery and sketched as a hobby until his talent was noticed by

Giovanni Fattori Giovanni Fattori (September 6, 1825August 30, 1908) was an Italian artist, one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli. He was initially a painter of historical themes and military subjects. In his middle years, inspired by the Bar ...

, who encouraged him to enroll at the

Academy of Fine Arts of Florence The Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze () is an instructional art academy in Florence, in Tuscany, in central Italy. It was founded by Cosimo I de' Medici in 1563, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari. Michelangelo, Benvenuto Cellini and ...

, which he did, against parental objections, in 1884 when he was only fifteen.Brief biography
@ the Galleria Athena. While there, he studied with Fattori and was influenced by the works of

Silvestro Lega Silvestro Lega (8 December 1826 – 21 September 1895) was an Italian realist painter. He was one of the leading artists of the Macchiaioli and was also involved with the Mazzini movement. Biography He was born in Modigliana, near Forlì, to ...

After graduating, he returned to Livorno and continued his studies at the "Scuola Libera del Nudo". In 1893, his family had him committed to a psychiatric hospital in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

, citing depression and persecution mania as the justification. This condition may have been brought about by the infidelity of a woman he loved, or perhaps his family simply found him too temperamental to handle, but the experience produced a major change in his artistic style. He abandoned the realistic style of the

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order ...

in favor of broad strokes and brighter colors; developing his own version of

Divisionism Divisionism, also called chromoluminarism, is the characteristic style in Neo-Impressionist painting defined by the separation of colors into individual dots or patches that interact optically..Homer, William I. ''Seurat and the Science of Pain ...

. This combination of style and mental illness earned him his nickname: "The Van Gogh of Livorno" (later, "Italy"). Financially unsuccessful and impoverished, he worked as a waiter, created designs for embroiderers and milliners, made signs and sold the occasional painting. In 1911, he went to France for a year, living near his brother in

Digne-les-Bains Digne-les-Bains (; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Dinha dei Banhs''), or simply and historically Digne (''Dinha'' in the Franco-Provençal, classical norm or ''Digno'' in the Mistralian norm), is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Alpe ...

. While there, he painted maritime subjects and undertook to study the works of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation, influenced avant-garde artistic movements of the early 20th century a ...

. When he returned to Livorno, he became an habitué of the

Caffè Bardi The former Caffè Bardi was a notable coffee house and meeting place in the 19th through mid-20th century for artists and intellectuals in Livorno, a region of Tuscany, Italy. The coffee-house no longer exists and stood at the corner of via Cairoli ...

(modeled after the

Caffè Michelangiolo Caffè Michelangiolo was a historic café in Florence, located in Via Larga (now renamed Via Cavour). During the nineteenth century Wars of Italian Independence, it became a major meeting place for Tuscan writers and artists, and for patriots an ...

in Florence) which, since 1908, had served as a meeting place for the city's young artists; mostly from the generation after Puccini's. He began to exhibit and, by 1914, could earn his living entirely from his paintings. At the age of fifty, after a brief hospitalization, he died from a neglected lung infection, aggravated by the long hours he spent outdoors, painting in

Maremma The Maremma (, ; from Latin , "maritime and) is a geographical region located between Lazio and Tuscany, Central Italy. The biggest city is Grosseto. The region, with a long history, is traditionally populated by the '' butteri'', mounted c ...

. His unexpected death, just as he was beginning to be appreciated, caused great sorrow among his friends at the

. A month later, fifteen of them met at the studios of

Gino Romiti Gino Romiti (1881–1967) was an Italian painter, active in Livorno. Biography He was born in Livorno, and trained under Guglielmo Micheli, along with Manlio Martinelli, Llewelyn Lloyd, Amedeo Modigliani, and Aristide Sommati. In 1898, he exhib ...

and established the "

Gruppo Labronico The Gruppo Labronico is an Italian artistic association founded in Livorno in 1920. History The Labronico group of artists is rooted in the heyday of the Caffè Bardi. After the Caffè closed and the death of Mario Puccini, the Gruppo Labronico ...

" (Leghorn Group) to honor his achievements, promote the artists of Livorno, and have Puccini's body interred in the memorial chapel near the

Sanctuary of Montenero The Shrine of Our Lady of Grace, also known as Sanctuary of Montenero, is a religious complex in Monte Nero, a village in Livorno Hills, near Livorno, central Italy reachable by a funicular. The complex, elevated to the rank of Basilica and mai ...

."La Fondazione"
@ the Gruppo Labronico website. This process was stalled, for bureaucratic reasons, but the group persisted and his remains were finally placed there in 1988. Puccini-Pasture

In 1949, a street in

Quercianella Quercianella is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Livorno, in the province of Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. It represents the extreme south of Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of It ...

was named after him.

References

External links

Arcadja Auctions: More works by Puccini.

Puccini Retrospective
@ the Palazzo Mediceo in

Seravezza Seravezza is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Lucca, in northern Tuscany, Italy. It is located in Versilia, close to the Apuan Alps. Neighboring municipalities *Forte dei Marmi * Massa * Montignoso *Pietrasanta * Stazzema Patron saints S ...

,
11 July-2 November 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Puccini, Mario 1869 births 1920 deaths 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian landscape painters Post-impressionist painters Infectious disease deaths in Tuscany Painters from Livorno 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian male artists

Biography

References

Further reading

External links