Llewelyn Lloyd

Telemaco Signorini was born on 18 August 1835 in Florence, the son of Giustina Santoni and Giovanni Signorini, the latter being an esteemed painter in the service of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II.

After initially studying classics, the young Telemaco turned to art, thus complying with the wishes of his father, under whose guidance he began his pictorial training. In 1852, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, but he followed its courses listlessly, and strongly disliked the rigid style which was taught there.

As early as 1856, he left the Academy, breaking away from academic rules and turning to outdoor painting, which he practised with his friends Odoardo Borrani and Vincenzo Cabianca.

In 1855, he began to take part in the lively, animated discussions at the Caffè Michelangelo in Florence, the same year in which the artist Saverio Altamura began to experiment with light and shadow. Immersed in his painting, and feeling creatively frustrated, Signorini travelled extensively during this period. After a study trip to Venice in 1856 in the company of Vito d'Ancona, he travelled to Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont, the lakes, Venice, Ferrara, and in 1859 even enrolled as a Garibaldi volunteer.

An important trip for the development of his artistic style was the one he made with Vincenzo Cabianca to La Spezia, where he visited the villages of Pitelli, San Terenzo, Vezzano Ligure, Lerici, Sarzana, Riomaggiore and the coast of the Cinque Terre. This trip gave a new impulse to his painting, endowing it with vigorous contrasts between light and shadow which put colour at the heart of the painting.

Signorini himself wrote that: "On my return to Florence, I had my first works rejected by our Sponsor (Academy of Fine Arts in Florence) for excessive use of shading and I was savaged by the newspapers as a mere painter."[2] In the meantime, he fired off several paintings with military subjects that received a certain degree of appreciation.[1] In 1861, with Cabianca, he painted a series of paintings with a military theme.

In 1861, Signorini went to Paris with Cabianca and Banti, where he befriended Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Constant Troyon and became passionate about Courbet's realism. Returning to Italy, he stayed for a short period in Castiglioncello with other artists following the Macchiaioli movement and then founded the so-called "Piagentina school" with Lega and Borrani, named after the Florentine town where they used to paint outdoors, taking inspiration from nature and its poetic seasonality. During these years he painted Pazze (1865) and Novembre (1870)[1].

In his last years Signorini went regularly to Paris, where he came into contact with Impressionist painting and its major exponents, such as Degas, Manet, and Monet, which influenced many of his works (such as Porta Adriana in Ravenna and Pioggia d'estate a Settignano). In the meantime he continued to travel tirelessly, going to the Marne and Seine areas in 1873-1874, to England and Scotland in 1881, to Naples in 1870 and 1871, but he also repeatedly visited Cenisio, Elba and above all Riomaggiore, where he worked hard to keep his artistic vision alive. He died in Florence on 10 February 1901

sue opere (come Porta Adriana a Ravenna e Pioggia d'estate a Settignano). Intanto continuò a viaggiare instancabilmente, recandosi anche nelle zone della Marna e della Senna nel 1873-1874, in Inghilterra e Scozia nel 1881, a Napoli nel 1870 e 1871, ma visitò ripetutamente anche Cenisio, l'Elba e soprattutto Riomaggiore, dove lavorò alacremente nella prospettiva di rinnovare la propria visione pittorica. Morì, infine, a Firenze il 10 febbraio 1901.

Of Welsh origin, he took his first steps in the city of Labron in the school of Guglielmo Micheli with Amedeo Modigliani, Oscar Ghiglia and Gino Romiti. The best of the group attracted the attention of Giovanni Fattori, and Lloyd was one of those invited to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Here he came into contact with the Florentine milieu where Macchiaioli painters such as Telemaco Signorini and Adriano Cecioni were setting the tone, and he came closer to studying 15th-century Italian art.

His first painting phase was characterised by a stylistic conservatism with softened tones, capable of combining classical tendencies and modern aspirations. It was, however, the influence that Plinio Nomellini exerted on him that brought him into the wake of Divisionism, a style that he developed over time, using Liguria (the Cinque Terre) and Tuscany (the Pisan and Livorno countryside) as natural settings.

He then became one of the leading exponents, together with Plinio Nomellini, Benvenuto Benvenuti and Guglielmo Amedeo Lori, of what was later defined as Tuscan Divisionism. The infatuation was short-lived, however, so much so that by the time of his stay on the island of Elba, he had already shown a change of direction in his painting, which brought him back onto more conventional tracks.

The next thirty years took place in a crescendo of artistic emotions, produced by the large number of exhibitions in which he participated.

In 1929, he also found the time to compose an important essay on the history of art, La pittura dell'Ottocento in Italia (Nineteenth-Century Painting in Italy), in which he celebrated the figure of Giovanni Fattori and dwelt on the debt virtually incurred by the artistic avant-gardes (Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, etc.) towards the Tuscan (Sienese) primitives of the 15th century.

Llewelyn Lloyd's painting career ended in 1944, when he was interned in the Fossoli concentration camp and then in Bavaria, due to his Welsh origins. However, he was able to return to Italy in 1945, where he died in Florence.

Of Welsh origin, he took his first steps in the city of Labron in the school of Guglielmo Micheli with Amedeo Modigliani, Oscar Ghiglia and Gino Romiti. The best of the group attracted the attention of Giovanni Fattori, and Lloyd was one of those invited to the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Here he came into contact with the Florentine milieu where Macchiaioli painters such as Telemaco Signorini and Adriano Cecioni were setting the tone, and he came closer to studying 15th-century Italian art.

His first painting phase was characterised by a stylistic conservatism with softened tones, capable of combining classical tendencies and modern aspirations. It was, however, the influence that Plinio Nomellini exerted on him that brought him into the wake of Divisionism, a style that he developed over time, using Liguria (the Cinque Terre) and Tuscany (the Pisan and Livorno countryside) as natural settings.

He then became one of the leading exponents, together with Plinio Nomellini, Benvenuto Benvenuti and Guglielmo Amedeo Lori, of what was later defined as Tuscan Divisionism. The infatuation was short-lived, however, so much so that by the time of his stay on the island of Elba, he had already shown a change of direction in his painting, which brought him back onto more conventional tracks.

The next thirty years took place in a crescendo of artistic emotions, produced by the large number of exhibitions in which he participated.

In 1929, he also found the time to compose an important essay on the history of art, La pittura dell'Ottocento in Italia (Nineteenth-Century Painting in Italy), in which he celebrated the figure of Giovanni Fattori and dwelt on the debt virtually incurred by the artistic avant-gardes (Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, etc.) towards the Tuscan (Sienese) primitives of the 15th century.

Llewelyn Lloyd's painting career ended in 1944, when he was interned in the Fossoli concentration camp and then in Bavaria, due to his Welsh origins. However, he was able to return to Italy in 1945, where he died in Florence.

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