Anna Tonelli, née Anna Nistri ( – 1846) was an Italian portrait painter, active in the late 18th century and early 19th century primarily in Florence and London. She often worked on

miniature painting Miniature painting may refer to: * Miniature (illuminated manuscript), a small illustration used to decorate an illuminated manuscript ** Persian miniature, a small painting on paper in the Persian tradition, for a book or album ** Ottoman miniatur ...

, watercolors, and

pastel A pastel () is an art medium that consists of powdered pigment and a binder (material), binder. It can exist in a variety of forms, including a stick, a square, a pebble, and a pan of color, among other forms. The pigments used in pastels are ...

Biography

Anna Nistri was born in

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 ...

, Italy. In 1785, she married Italian violinist and composer, :it:Luigi Tonelli and together they had two children. It is thought she received training in fine art from Giuseppe Piattoli in Florence. Early in her career, she painted portraits of Henry Blundell and Edward Clive, Earl of Powis. From 1794, she lived in London, where she taught the Clive's children in drawing and exhibited twice at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1794 and 1797. From 1798 to 1801, she accompanied the Clive family a trip to India, where she worked primarily in watercolors. After the trip to India, she returned to Italy to be with her family. Her work is included in public museum collections including the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, the

Holburne Museum The Holburne Museum (formerly known as the Holburne of Menstrie Museum and the Holburne Museum of Art) is located in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, Bath, Somerset, England. The city's first public art gallery, the Grade I listed building, is home to ...

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

, among others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonelli, Anna 1760s births 1846 deaths Painters from Florence 18th-century Italian women artists Italian portrait painters 19th-century Italian women artists 19th-century Italian women painters Artists from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany