Carlo Domenici - (livorno 1897 – Portoferraio 1981) - Maremma Cowboy

Carlo Domenici - (Livorno 1897 - Portoferraio 1981) - Maremma Cowherd
oil on panel, 35x50 cm With frame 50x65 cm

signed lower left.

Carlo Domenici (Livorno 1897 – Elba Island 1981) is one of the leading representatives of the Livorno-based Labronici group, founded in 1920 at Caffè Bardi, the historic meeting place of the movement’s members. The group’s artists share a style attributable to post-Macchiaiolism; and the subjects depicted (the Tuscan countryside and seascapes, farmers and animals at work…) demonstrate how the Labronici shared with their Macchiaioli forebears a love for their land. Carlo Domenici, after an academic education, devoted himself to Macchiaioli painting. Scenes of rural life in which naturalism and chromatic pleasure merge. Tuscany is always the protagonist of his landscapes, particularly three areas of his homeland: the Maremma, with its farmers and animals working in the fields, close in style and technique to the great Fattori; masterpieces with a bucolic flavor, in which the warm tones of the countryside blend with the rugged features of the men and women harvesting grapes or threshing wheat. The Islandof Elba and its seascapes; paintings in which the atmosphere and the sea breeze are captured through vivid tones and vibrant light. Finally, his beloved Livorno, depicted with precise detail and strong emotion. In 1940 he moved to Florence but did not abandon the subjects dear to him, often returning to his hometown to paint his countryside. In 1970, he settled permanently on the Island of Elba, and in 1976, a stroke paralyzed his right arm, preventing him from continuing his painting career consistently. What finally plunged Domenici into despair was the death of his wife. The sole great satisfaction of the last years of his life was his appointmentas President of the Labronico Group in 1979, a position he held untilthe year of his death, 1981.