About Capri By Felice Giordano

Felice Giordano, born in 1880 in Naples and died in 1964 in Capri, was an Italian landscape painter who worked in the first half of the 20th century. Felice Giordano was born in Naples on January 9, 1880, and it was in this city that he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. However, his true master and guide for his training was the painter Antonino Leto, a mature Neapolitan artist who had been a student of Adriano Cecioni at the time of the "School of Resina" to which the Macchiaioli had contributed experience. This Leto was very successful and settled permanently in Capri in 1899. Leto's influence is clearly visible in Giordano's early pictorial technique, characterized by "an intense exaltation of the material arranged and highlighted by enameled lights, both in landscapes and in still lifes of such strong coherence" then, over time, the artist managed to find his own original dimension, but this time keeping in mind the Neapolitan and capricious views of Attilio Pratella and especially Rubens Santoro, his compatriots and a little older than him. In fact, his love for Capri remained constant, where he also moved, and the island's landscapes became his main source of inspiration in those years, although maritime still lifes with fish, mussels and octopuses were not lacking, while urban landscapes, which represent the heart of ancient Naples, were also present. But he traveled extensively and spent a long time in Venice, inspired by his art and influenced by the works of Giacomo Favretto, and then in Paris, two places where Rubens Santoro had also visited before him. He first became known in Naples, his hometown, where he presented his painting In the Countryside at the 22nd edition of the exhibition of the Salvator Rosa Promotion Society, then in 1913, in 1920 and in that of 1922 with the works Capri and Notturno. His fame also extended nationally and his solo exhibition at the Geri Gallery in Milan was well received by the public and the criticism. His paintings are in the Modern Art Gallery of Milan (Piazzetta della Fontana in Capri), in the room of the Council of the National Economy of Bologna (Spring of Capri), in the headquarters of the Municipality of Naples. His most popular subjects are landscapes and views of cities (both Naples and Capri and Venice and Paris), full-bodied maritime still lifes and enchanted or vibrant nocturnes, which are among the most typical and effective works of his production. He died at the age of eighty-four on Capri, his adopted island, on August 25, 1964. Original frameGilded wooden frame