Francessco Gioli Biography
Francesco Gioli (San Frediano a Settimo, 29 June 1846 – Florence, 4 February 1922) was an Italian painter of the Macchiaioli artistic movement. Brother of Luigi Gioli, he was a friend of Giovanni Fattori and Silvestro Lega, often visiting his villa in Fauglia. In the last years of his life he was met by the very young painter Anchise Picchi (1911-2007), who became a friend of his brother Luigi. In 1868 he made his first exhibition at the Florence Encouragement Society with Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy and the Spanish Ambassador; the following year this painting won him a prize which did not satisfy him, as he understood that "an old Art made by a young man" was being rewarded, as he himself said a few years later. Also derived from the historical and genre genre, there were two other works in that period: Alfieri visiting Goldoni and Goldoni visiting Gian Giacomo Rousseau. At the beginning of the seventies, approaching the innovators of the "macchia" experience and in particular: Giovanni Fattori and Telemaco Signorini, he clearly identified his path and turned to the observation and passionate study of nature. Guest of Diego Martelli in his Castiglioncello estate, he will be encouraged and advised to continue. Together with Adolfo Bellimbau and Eugenio Cecconi, in this period, he painted from life in the Pisan countryside, intense panels with a clear "Macchiaiola" approach. In 1870 he was present at the Mostra Italiana in Parma, whose jury included Cristiano Banti, Signorini and Cecioni, obtaining the bronze medal with the painting The Angelus Domini of the morning; in 1872 he presented Alla Messa at the Second National Exhibition in Milan; in 1875 at the Paris Salon, he exhibited Nei Campi and Un Incontro, now kept at the Gallery of Modern Art in Florence which achieved great success. On the occasion of this last exhibition, the artist stayed for about a month in Paris, in the company of Fattori, Egisto Ferroni and Niccolò Cannicci who also participated with their works. The group was attracted, not so much by Impressionism, but rather by the Barbizon School, establishing relationships with many exponents of this group and at the same time strengthening Gioli's conviction that his path was painting from life. This journey will mark the definitive turning point in the production of Francesco Gioli, who will increasingly ignore the themes of interiors of bourgeois/international taste, orienting himself almost exclusively towards landscape subjects, rural scenes tinged with a sober naturalism and some solid figure study.
