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Gaetano Chierici

(1838 - 1920)

Gaetano Chierici was born in 1838 in the town of Reggio Emilia between Modena and Parma, a rural town reliant on agriculture. Chierici lived and studied in Florence 1858-1866 before returning to Reggio Emilia where he was to remain. Although he was also a painter of landscape, Chierici rapidly developed an international reputation as a painter of peasant family life. While living in Florence, he was to draw on his experiences of peasant life in the region of his home town with subjects like “Baby’s Bath” of 1865. Such scenes were set in cottages featuring peasant families before an open hearth, the interior and figures painted in meticulous detail.

Chierici was to exhibit throughout Italy, in Milan, Naples, Parma and Florence and in the United States. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy in London 1877-81. His works were sought after throughout Europe, paintings being traded at high prices in Paris, Berlin and London as early as the 1870’s and in New York in 1900. Chierici died in the town of his birth, a wealthy and successful artist in 1920, the art school of Reggio Emilia being named after him.

His works can be found in museums in: Genoa; Prato and Stuttgart.