Achille Befani Formis Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Achille Formis pseudonym of Achille Befani (Naples, 15 September 1832 – Milan, 28 October 1906) was an Italian painter. Achille Befani was born in Naples where he began his career as a singer, abandoned at the beginning of the 1960s when he moved to Milan under the pseudonym Formis to follow courses at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Read the full biography

Achille Formis pseudonym of Achille Befani (Naples, 15 September 1832 – Milan, 28 October 1906) was an Italian painter. Achille Befani was born in Naples where he began his career as a singer, abandoned at the beginning of the 1960s when he moved to Milan under the pseudonym Formis to follow courses at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. His works on orientalist subjects, created on his return from repeated trips to the Near East, are highly appreciated; From the 1970s he added to these landscapes inspired by the Lombard countryside and the surroundings of Lake Maggiore, becoming an appreciated interpreter of Lombard naturalism alongside painters such as Eugenio Gignous, his friend since his Academy years. He took part in the annual Braidense events and in 1887 at the National Artistic Exhibition of Venice where he returned in 1899 with a view of the Mantuan countryside. He then exhibited in Berlin in 1896 and in Munich in 1901 and 1906, the year of his death. In 1899 he participated in the III International Art Exhibition in Venice.