Francesco Filippini

**Francesco Filippini** (18 September 1853 – 6 March 1895) was an Italian painter from Lombardy. Filippini is considered one of the most important landscape painters of the 1900s.

## Life

Filippini was born in Brescia, in Lombardy in northern Italy, on 18 September 1853, into a poor family. His father Lorenzo was a carpenter, his mother Silvia Signoria a seamstress. He was soon sent to work, first as a waiter in a pastry shop, later as a clerk to a notary.

Filippini attended the school of drawing at the Pinacoteca Tosio in Brescia, In 1872 he received a grant from the city council to continue his studies there. In 1875 he received an allowance to study under Giuseppe Bertini in Milan. In 1879 another grant allowed him to travel to Paris to visit the Salon, the official art exhibition of the French Fine Arts Academy.

Filippini exhibited at the annual shows of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan from 1879, and from 1880 lived in that city. He made his living by teaching, both in schools and privately. He was made an honorary member of the Accademia di Brera in 1878.

Filippini died in Milan on 6 March 1895, at the age of just forty-two, from a severe form of pneumonia caused by his practice of _en plein air_ painting, which he pursued tirelessly even in winter, to the point of exhaustion and exposure to the cold.

## Works

When he was young, Filipinni painted mostly religious or historical subjects, as well as some portraits. In later life he painted mostly landscapes – of the Apennines, the Lombardy countryside and the Alps. He also made paintings of the sea near  Genova, Naples and Venice. His work shows the influence of the Scapigliatura.

|Painting|Year|Details|Image|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_At the foot of the glacier_|c. 1875-1895|It is landscape painted in oil. The work portrays a refuge behind a glacier in the Italian mountains.||
|_Autumn_|1875|It is 83 x 142 centimetres painted in oil. It was painted about 1875, in Milano, Italy. Is in the collection of the Museum Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia.||
|_Boats in Venice_|1890|A 19th-century late impressionist painted 80 x 139 centimetres in oil. It was painted about 1890, in Venice, Italy.||
|_The Corn Harvesters_|1887-1889|A 19th-century late impressionist painted in oil. It was painted about 1887, in Milano, Italy. It is in the collection of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan.||
|_Evening in November_|1891|Painted 178 x 103 centimetres in oil. It was painted about 1891, in Milano, Italy.  It is in the collection of the GAM-Gallery of Modern Art of Milan (inv. n. 195).||
|_Grandmother and children_|1887|It was painted 37 x 60.5 centimetres in oil on 1887 at Milano, Italy. Is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Art and History of Brescia (inv. n. 1254, 302123487).||
|_Head of a Woman_|1876|Oil painting  painted about 1876, in Milano, Italy. Is in the collection of the Modern art gallery of Novara (inv. n. GG 555).||
|_Imminent thunderstorm_|<abbr>c.</abbr> 1890|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan (inv. n. 7146).||
|_Impending storm_|1890|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan _(inv. n. 268)._||
|_In the mountain_|1890|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna _._||
|_Marina_|<abbr>c.</abbr> 1882|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan _since 1931 (inv. n. 4544)._||
|_The market_|1881|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan _(inv. n. 4725)._||
|_November morning in Ligurno_|1885|Painted in oil. It is in the collection of Brera Academy and subsequently bought by the Galleria d'arte moderna di Milano (inv. n. 265).||
|_Nude Study_|1876|It was painted in Brescia, Italy. Is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Brescia (inv. n. 988).||
|_Portrait of the mother_|1877|It is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Brescia (inv. n. 608).||
|_Reading_|1881|It was painted 60 x 68 centimetres in oil.||
|_Scirocco in Venice Lagoon_|1882|It was painted 75.5 x 45 centimetres in oil. It is in the collection of the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna.||
|_Scutching of the canapa_|1887|It is exhibited at the Pinacoteca di Brera. _The Scutching of the canapa_ di Filippini won the art prize Premio Mylius in 1889.||
|_Seascape_|1882|It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan since 1931 (inv. n. 4543).||
|_Self-portrait as a young man_|1873|It is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Brescia (inv. n. 1526). Made when the artist was twenty, while attending the drawing school in Brescia, it is one of the three self-portraits made by Filippini.||
|_Shepherdess at rest_|1887|It is in the collection of the Gallery of Modern Art of Milan (inv. n. 193), from which it was bought in 1933.||
|_Sunset_|1891|It is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Brescia (inv. n. 734).||
|_Sunset in Valtrompia_|1883|It was painted about 1883, in Valtrompia, Italy. It is in the collection of the Civic Museums of Brescia||
|_The plain_|<abbr>c.</abbr> 1892|It is in the collection of the Province of Milano, which bought it on 22 January 1893, previously owned by the Museo della Permanente in Milan from 1892 to 1893. It is an oil painting that is 190 x 110 centimetres.||
|_The Trip hammer_|1889|It was made around 1889, in Milano, Italy, exhibited in the collection of Pinacoteca di Brera (Reg. Cron. 6297).||

## Related pages

- List of Italian painters

## Further reading

- Editorial staff (4 November 2015). "Francesco Filippini, il dossier. Uno splendido pittore morto a 42 anni di tisi". _StileArte_
- Vasco Frati (1999). _Francesco Filippini: 1853-1895: un protagonista del naturalismo lombardo_ (exhibition catalogue, in Italian). Milan:Skira. .

## Infobox (artist)

- **name**: Francesco Filippini
- **image**: Francesco Filippini, Autoritratto giovanile, 1873-1875, olio su cartone, 32 x 21 cm, Musei Civici d'Arte e storia (Brescia), inv. 1526.jpg
- **caption**: Francesco Filippini, self-portrait
- **birth date**: 18 September 1853
- **birth place**: Brescia, Italy
- **nationality**: Italian
- **field**: landscape painting, landscapes, seascapes
- **movement**: Scapigliatura
- **death date**: 6 March 1895
- **death place**: Milan, Italy