Antonino or Antonio Leto (June 14, 1844 – May 31, 1913 in

Capri, Italy Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

) was an Italian painter, painting mainly genre/landscape subjects in an

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

style.

Biography

In 1861, sponsored by his uncle, he moved to study in Palermo under L. Barba and Luigi Lojacono. He adopted the style and subject matter of

Filippo Palizzi Filippo Palizzi (16 June 1818, Vasto – 11 September 1899, Naples) was an Italian painter, known for his rural genre scenes with animals, mostly goats. His brothers, Francesco Paolo, Giuseppe and Nicola, also became painters. Biography He was ...

, In 1864, he moved to

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

where he was attracted to the '' Scuola of Resina'' style of painting fostered by

Giuseppe De Nittis Giuseppe De Nittis (February 25, 1846 – August 21, 1884)Efrem Gisella Calingaert. "De Nittis, Giuseppe." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 9 Aug. 2013. was one of the most important Italian painters of the 19th c ...

. He took lessons from

Adriano Cecioni Adriano Cecioni (July 26, 1836May 23, 1886) was an Italian artist, caricaturist, and critic associated with the Macchiaioli group. Biography He was born in Florence into a middle-class family belonging to the local gentry. He began his artistic ...

. He painted both in oil, tempera, and watercolor. By 1870, he had won a silver medal at the Mosta Artistica of Palermo with the painting ''Il Ritorno dal Pascolo'' and a gold medal at the Regional Exposition of Siracusa for ''La Bufera''. In 1872, he sent ''A Winter's day in Sicily'' to the Brera Exposition. In 1873, he joined in

Portici Portici (; ) is a town and municipality (''comune'') of the Metropolitan City of Naples in the region of Campania in Italy. It has 51,351 inhabitants. Geography Portici lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about southeast of ...

with other painter of the Scuola di Resina, and travelled to Rome and met

Francesco Paolo Michetti Francesco Paolo Michetti (October 2, 1851 – March 5, 1929) was an Italian painter known especially for his genre art, genre works. Biography He was born in Tocco da Casauria in the Province of Chieti. His father having died when he was a boy, M ...

. In 1874 at Rome, he painted ''Alla Villa Borgese'' and ''Un contadino Romano'', exhibited at the 10th Promotrice in Naples. In 1874–75, he won a Sicilian stipend to study in Rome with his work ''La Raccolta delle Olive'' In 1876–1878, he traveled to Florence under a stipend. There he painted livelier cityscapes including ''Case a Viareggio'', ''Ponte di Santi Trinita'', and ''Passeggiata alle Cascine''. After selling many of his works through the Galleria Pisani, in 1879 he moved to Paris invited by A. Goupil of the

Goupil Gallery Goupil & Cie is an international auction house and merchant of contemporary art and collectibles. Jean-Baptiste Adophe Goupil founded Goupil & Cie in 1850. Goupil & Cie became a leading art dealership in 19th-century France, with its headquart ...

. In 1880, he painted ''Vecchia Parigi'' and ''Le Bois de Boulogne''. In Paris, his contemporary painters were

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italians, Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Ac ...

, A. Mancini,

Vincenzo Gemito Vincenzo Gemito (July 16, 1852 – March 1, 1929) was an Italian sculptor and artist. Although he worked in various studios of well-known artists in his native Naples, Rome and Paris, he is considered to have largely been self-taught, the reason ...

, A. de Neuville,

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

, and JL Meissonier. By 1880, he returned to Palermo, where he decorated the room of the Villa ai Colli (now Opera Pia Istituto Pignatelli) with lively vedute and genre scenes. After the 1880s, his health did not allow him to travel much, but he was prolific in sending paintings to exhibitions. He moved to Capri in 1882. His ''I funari di

Torre del Greco Torre del Greco (; ; "Greek man's Tower") is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples in Italy, with a population of c. 85,000 . The locals are sometimes called ''Corallini'' because of the once plentiful coral in the nearby sea, and becaus ...

'' (1883) was celebrated at the National Exposition of Fine Arts of Rome, and now hangs in the Chamber of Deputies. Over the next decade many of this subjects focused on seascapes or seashore activities. Together with Francesco Lojacono and Michele Catti, he forms the so-called

canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...

triad of the Sicilian

landscape artists Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

of the

Belle Époque The Belle Époque () or La Belle Époque () was a period of French and European history that began after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and continued until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Fr ...

Gallery

Antonino Leto - I figli del mare, Capri.jpg, ''I figli del Mare'' Antonino Leto - Il gioco a Villa Tasca.jpg, ''Il Gioco a Villa Tasca'' Antonino Leto - Napoli.jpg, ''Vedute di Napoli'' Antonino Leto - A mid-day incident (1876).jpg, ''A Mid-day Incident'' (1876) Antonino Leto - Arab sheep herders.jpg, ''Arab sheep herders'' Antonino Leto - Barca Di Pescatori Sullo Sfondo Di Castel Dell'ovo.jpg, ''Barca di Pescatori sullo sfondo di Castel Dell'Ovo''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leto, Antonio 1834 births 1913 deaths People from Monreale 19th-century Italian painters Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian male artists Painters from Sicily Italian landscape painters Italian genre painters 19th-century Italian male artists Artists from the Metropolitan City of Palermo