Large oil painting on canvas by Alfonso Muzii (Castellamare 1856 - Pescara 1946) depicting a marine landscape with fishermen, second half of the 19th century. Coeval frame. Alfonso Muzii spent his youth in his hometown but when he chose to dedicate himself to art he had to abandon Abruzzo; first at the Academy of Florence, under the guidance of Stefano Ussi, and then in Naples at the school of Domenico Morelli and Filippo Palizzi. At the beginning of the 1880s, he frequented the Michetti Convent in Francavilla with a certain assiduity, where he met all the artists who were part of it. Francesco Paolo Michetti exerted a great influence on him; totally enraptured by his artistic charm, she created her first works inspired by the Master's canvases. In 1883 he was present at the Rome Exhibition where he presented some landscapes and faded faces of the old with their thousand subtle wrinkles and harshness, executed with strength and finesse particularly appreciated by Michetti. It is D'Annunzio who gives us an account of this: "[…] notable for their gentle sobriety of color and for I don't know what mild feeling of melancholy [...] They represented hills covered with olive trees under a sky sprinkled with white clouds; solitary country roads between two flowering hedges; freshly plowed fields, all damp from the recent rain, long rows of tall, thin trees..." (G. D'Annunzio 1887). Between 1882 and 1884 he completed some important works: Giovine mendicante, Gessaiuolo di Manoppello, Spaccalegna and Mungià. In 1883 and 1885 he was present at the Promotrice of Naples. In 1884 he exhibited the works Femmine di terra d'Abruzzi and Maschi di racial d'Abruzzi in Turin. The following year he took part in the Berlin Exhibition and the Antwerp National Exhibition with two landscapes on canvas. In 1886 he sent three female portraits executed with admirable finesse to the Brera Exhibition in Milan. After having exhibited in Venice on the shores of the Adriatic in 1887 he undertook a journey which led him to stay for a few years; having returned to Europe he settled for some time in Genoa and the western Riviera, in Milan, on the lakes of Lombardy and then in Paris. In 1893, he took part with Michetti in a Roman exhibition of Fine Arts and then again on display in Milan in the same year with Study of country, Waiting and Tentation, Bordighera, Olivo a Bordighera. In March 1894 he participated in the Promotrice di Roma. In 1897 he took part again in the Brera Triennale in Milan with various portraits and Ligurian and Lombard landscapes. In 1898 he was in Turin with Autunno; in 1901 in Florence with Studi di testa and Oliveto in Bordighera. In 1901 he sent a pastel entitled The Two Sisters to Venice, at the IV International Exhibition. From the beginning of the new century until the 1930s, he still settled in Liguria and then in Verbano in Suna. At the beginning of the 40s he returned to Abruzzo, settled in Pescara, abandoned painting and closed his canvases in a dark room. He does not sell his paintings despite many requests. Despite his vast and very appreciable production, the figure of Muzii remains unknown, it was his way of being that made official culture ignore him, although he did not flaunt particular detachment from it, he in fact sent paintings to more than one national exhibition and at the IV International in Venice. However, his artistic research fits into the broader cultural panorama of late 19th century Verism, of which Muzii will give an extremely personal interpretation, made up of calm and delicate tones. Among his most important paintings we still remember In the arms of my mother, The pretender and Spiaggia di Liguria.
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SILVER Seller in Firenze, Italy
