Michele Catti

Michele Catti
Born (1855-04-05)April 5, 1855
Palermo
Died July 4, 1914(1914-07-04) (aged 59)
Palermo
Nationality Italian
Spouse(s) Maria Anna Contarini
Children
  • Ugo
  • Carmela
  • Laura
  • Aurelio
Parents
  • Andrea Catti (father)
  • Carmela Riotta (mother)

Michele Catti (Palermo, April 5, 1855 - Palermo, July 4, 1914) was an Italian painter, considered one of the most important Sicilian landscape artists of the Belle Époque.[1]

Biography

The painter Michele Catti was born in Palermo on April 5, 1855 to nobleman Andrea Catti, and Carmela Riotta. Andrea Catti was the son of Michele and Concetta Natoli, a prominent family from Messina and Princes of Sperlinga.[2] The family Catti originate from Lendinara, where the family was assigned to the noble council, and in 1646 were elected to the Great Council of the Republic of Venice. The family divided into various branches and settled in different cities of Italy.[3] In Sicily the family of Michele lived in Carini and Palermo.

Ultime foglie (Il viale della Libertà in una giornata di pioggia). 1906. Oil on canvas, 100 x 201 cm. Collection Galleria d'arte Moderna (Palermo).

Michele Catti was the second son in a family with 4 brothers and 3 sisters. His father, who belonged to a family of judges and lawyers, wanted him to start legal studies. Catti was therefore sent to aunt Sabina, who had married into the family Distefano of the Dukes of San Lorenzo,[4] to study in Palermo. Although his father envisioned that he would follow him in his legal career, Catti was not convinced of this choice and abandoned the studies he was enrolled in. Subsequently his father ceased his financial support and broke all communications with his son. Fortunately, his aunt continued to host and nourish him.[5]

Soon however Catti tried by writing to his father's influential friends, to re-establish contact with his father and in the end some friends made him reconcile with his son.[5] Despite the fact that the relationship between the two remained difficult, his father arranged for his son to start working as a clerk at the court of Palermo. This work was a restraint for a bohemian like him. During this time he spent a great deal of time with his friend Luigi Natoli, who encouraged him in his painting and took him to the Palermo salons where he came into contact with the main artistic personalities of these times.[5] The young Michele Catti, brilliant and extroverted, soon gained the esteem of the painter Francesco Lojacono, the foremost Sicilian landscape artist of that time, who took him in as a pupil. Catti initially followed the lessons of the Lojacono with great enthusiasm and, distinguished for his talent and disposition, became his student. But tired of focusing on technical painting and the sensitivity of Lojacono, he soon moved on.[6]

Marina. Undated. Oil on canvas, 30 x 67 cm. Private collection.

Around 1875, Catti met the artist Vincenzo Ragusa, who had just returned to Palermo with his wife, artist O'Tama, from Japan, where he had opened a painting school that had been very successful. He immediately hit it off with him, and enthusiastic about the many Japanese components he had introduced in his art, they planned to open a school together, but the sad economic situation and the precarious state of his health prevented this.[5][7] In 1875 Catti decided to participate in the exhibition organized in Montevergini, for the Congress of Scientists held in Palermo. Catti, unknown to anyone, prepared a work especially for the exhibition, Burrasca d’autunno, a canvas of 50 x 80 cm. His painting was considered one of the most beautiful works of the exhibition and one of the men who bestowed him with such compliments was Francesco Lojacono.[5]

Viale della Libertà. 1895. Oil on canvas, 97 x 198 cm. Collection Circolo Artistico Palermo.

At the inauguration all the nobility of Palermo was present, accompanying the honored guests Prince Umberto of Savoy and Margherita along with other personalities. Umberto, after being introduced by Prince Ferdinando Monroy, gave him his hand and said, "You are from Palermo. It is good that you honor your homeland." After a short conversation Umberto bought the painting.[5] He also received a flattering appraisal by the great painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme, who said during the exhibition that Catti was a revelation.[8]

In 1881 he participated in the Fine Arts Exhibition of the Milan National Exhibition with the seascape Crepuscolo.

Nonetheless, Michele Catti took only one trip outside of Sicily in his whole life. Together with Luigi Natoli, he went to Rome in 1883. In the eternal city painter Francesco Paolo Michetti, admiring his paintings, invited him to work in his studio, but Catti appears to have declined. He went back after several months with the conviction of devoting himself entirely to painting the reality of Sicily.[5]

Autunno. Ca. 1905-1910. Oil on canvas, 36 x 49 cm, collection Galleria d'Arte Moderna (Palermo).

Returning to Palermo, he married on April 7, 1888 with Maria Anna Contarini, a Palermitan noblewoman of an illustrious marquesal family hailing from Venice;[4] one of the families who founded the Republic of Venice, who elected the first doge and gave the Venetian Republic in total 8 doges of its own, plus several other ecclesiastical, political and military personalities. From this marriage came four children: Ugo, Carmela, Laura and Aurelio. In this period, following the Risorgimento, the economic situation of Sicily was disastrous and this affected the Catti family as well.[5][6]

After 1885, Catti abandoned his realistic approach, to an impressionism possibly inspired by the works of Antonio Leto, characterized by a wide and sparse brushstroke.[6]

 

In 1891 he exhibited again in Milan and at the Promotrice in Palermo, where he also exhibited in 1893. In 1892 he painted Castel di Tusa and in 1896 he obtained a personal success at the exhibition held at the Circolo Artico di Palermo with the paintings Estate, Primavera, Autunno e Inverno (the 4 seasons). He held a personal exhibition in 1898 and in 1900 he exhibited at the Belle Arti exhibition at the Teatro Massimo.

Tempo piovoso. Oil on wood, 41 x 24 cm, private collection.

Catti also had a pupil, Erminio Kremp, with whom he spent many hours in the osteria looking for alcohol in a way of escape from reality. His friendship with Kremp was important in his life as a man and artist. Apart from Kremp he had many noble Palermitan friends who appreciated him, besides his artistic talent, for his remarkable qualities: he was, in fact, a brilliant, generous and pleasant man in gatherings. Testimony to his sociability and charisma, the Prince of Trabia regularly organized balls in his honor or following his successes at various exhibitions, and Prince Tasca Lanza could often be found at Catti's home.[6]

Catti exhibited in Palermo and also outside the island, but he had little contact with artists from other regions, although his works include typical techniques and manners of the Tuscan Macchiaioli painters and the Impressionists themselves. Meeting and befriending painter Giuseppe De Nittis was therefore important to Catti, as he could talk of his French experiences and the local art movements.[8][9]

His most mature works, characterized by a smooth brushstroke and a robust and vibrant style, are early twentieth-century: he appreciated sad autumn atmospheres, gray skies, and cold windy days, which he portrayed with dim and melancholic tones. In 1901 he composed Donna a passeggio, in 1903 Paesaggio paludoso, in 1906 Via Libertà and Donna che raccoglie i fiori, in 1908 Scogli a riva, in 1910 Alberi a riva, Barche, Marina con scogli. Organized by Edoardo Alfano he held a large personal exhibition in 1910 in Palermo where thirty-six of his works were presented. In 1911 he was awarded the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Rome for the picture Ultime foglie (Il viale della Libertà in una giornata di pioggia) of 1906.[5][6][9]

In his last years his health became very bad and his eyesight worsened to such extent that he was no longer able to paint.[6] Michele Catti died on July 4, 1914 in Palermo.[2] Apart from his works in Palermo's Galleria d'Arte Moderna, the Fondazione Sicilia at Villa Zito and numerous galleries, most of Catti's works remain in private collections, primarily in Palermo, Sicily - his homeland.[5]

Exhibitions

Selected works

See also

References

  1. ↑ "CATTI IL PITTORE DELLA CITTÀ COSÌ SVELÒ LA MALINCONIA DELL' ISOLA".
  2. 1 2 Archivio Comunale di Palermo
  3. ↑ DI CROLLALANZA, G. B. (1886). DIZIONARIO STORICO-BLASONICO DELLE FAMIGLIE NOBILI E NOTABILI ITALIANE ESTINTE E FIORENTI. Primo volume. ARNALDO FORNI EDITORE.
  4. 1 2 Mango di Casalgerardo, Antonino (1912). NOBILIARIO DI SICILIA. Vol. 2 - Notizie e stemmi relativi alle famiglie nobili siciliane. Palermo: A. Reber.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Spadaro, Maria Antonietta (2013). Michele Catti [Palermo 1855-1914]. Palermo: Fondazione Sant'Elia.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Giardina, Alida (1974). Michele Catti. Palermo: Italo-Latino-Americana Palma.
  7. ↑ Grasso, Franco (1993). Catti - Maestri siciliani. Kalós.
  8. 1 2 Accascina, M (1939). L'800 siciliano. Pittura. Rome.
  9. 1 2 Purpura, Antonella (1998). Michele Catti nelle collezione del museo. Palermo: Civica Galleria D'Arte Moderna.


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