Luigi Chialiva, Italian 1842 - 1914

Born in Caslano, Italy, Luigi Chialiva became a specialist in outdoor peasant life; especially farm animal tended by children. After spending his childhood on the shores of Lake Lugano, he was sent by his father to the Polytechnique Institution at Zurich where he studied with Semper, a famous architect. In 1864 he entered the Art School Milan as a student of the genre painter Carlo Mancini. He also worked in Paris under Ferdinand Heilbuth, a painter with a sense of humor and excellent insight into the presentation of character.

Returning to France in 1872 after his father's death, Chialiva married and settled in Ecouen, an artistic village a few miles north of Paris. Here, along with yearly trips to England and central France, the artist found inspiration for his work.

Henry Bacon, an American painter and writer living in France, wrote a glowing appraisal of Chialiva in "Parisian Art and Artists" stating: "Chialiva is a cosmopolite - a native of Italy, a good Englishman, thoroughly Parisian, and married to an American lady. His interests and sympathies are unusually broad and liberal. He is fond of painting English landscapes, which he treats with tenderness and sympathy. Speaking in a general way, one would describe his art as landscape with figures. He sees a landscape as a portrait painter sees a face. It is a living thing, with ever-varying expression. Chialiva is fond of putting children and animals into his landscapes, which add interest, but do not take such prominence in the picture as to detract from the landscape; and the habits and peculiarities of the animals he studies carefully. Each picture is a page of natural history, where the atmosphere is always beautiful and pleasant to read."

Biography excerpted from the unpublished catalog by Edward P. Bentley for the Haussner Restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, titled: Haussner's, The Children.

Luigi Chialiva, painter of animal subjects, was an artist of extraordinary talent. A wealthy Italian, he was raised in the intellectual society of Lugano, Switzerland. Chialiva studied architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, moved to Vienna after receiving his diploma and then enrolled at the Accademia dell'Arte in Milan where he studied painting under Carlo Mancini.

His work received early recognition when he won first prize at the prestigious Fondation Mylins in 1868 for a painting of animals drinking at the trough. In 1874, after a stay in London, Chialiva settled in Paris. In Paris, Chialiva associated with other Italian ex-patriot artists such as Giuseppe de Nittis and Giovanni Boldini and he was close friends with Edgar Degas. The refinement found in the work of Chialiva is often attributed to his association with Degas, although Chialiva's atmospheric landscapes were also influenced by Corot and the Barbizon painters.

Chialiva's paintings were much sought after and he exhibited widely. He was a regular contributor to the Salon Nationale des Beaux-Arts and at the Venice Biennial of 1901, five works of animal subjects were shown to great success. Chialiva's paintings are included in such museum collections as the Gallery of Modern Art, Turin, the Musee du Luxembourg, Paris; the Museum of Art, Sheffield; the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan and the Gallery of Modern Art, Rome. The artist died in Paris in 1914.