Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico (July 10, 1888 – November 20, 1978) was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Greek-Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father.
After studying art in Athens and Florence, De Chirico moved to Germany in 1906 and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, and studied the works of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger. In July 1911 he spent a few days in Turin on his way to Paris.
De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images. At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannequin-like hybrid figures.
De Chirico met and married his first wife, the Russian Ballerina Raissa Gurievich in 1924, and together they moved to Paris. In 1928 he held his first exhibition in New York City and shortly afterwards, London.
In 1930 De Chirico met his second wife, Isabella Pakszwer Far, a Russian, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Together they moved to Italy in 1932, finally settling in Rome in 1944.
He remained extremely prolific even as he approached his 90th year. In 1974 he was elected to the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He died in Rome on November 20, 1978.
The enigma of the hour, 1911
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼
Nostalgia of the infinite, 1913
Oil on canvas
The Museum of Modern Arts
New York, USA ▼
The awakening of Ariadne, 1913
Oil on canvas
Private collection ▼
The Great Tower, 1913
Oil on canvas, 123.5 x 52.5 cm
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Düsseldorf, Germany ▼
Le rêve transformé, 1913
Oil on canvas, 63 x 152 cm
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, USA ▼
The soothsayer’s recompense, 1913
Oil on canvas, The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia, USA ▼
Piazza d’Italia, 1913
Oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Ontario
Toronto, Canada ▼
Love song, 1914
Oil on canvas, 73 x 59.1 cm
The Museum of Modern Arts
New York, USA ▼
Portrait prémonitoire de Guillaume Apollinaire, 1914
Oil on canvas, 81.5 x 65 cm
Centre Georges Pompidou
Paris, France ▼
Torino printanière, 1914
Oil on canvas, 124 x 99.5 cm
Private collection ▼
L’Angoisse du départ, 1914
Oil on canvas, 85 x 69 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA ▼
Mystery and melancholy of a street, 1914
Oil on canvas, 88 x 72 cm
Private collection ▼
Le duo, 1915
Oil on canvas, 81.9 x 59 cm
The Museum of Modern Arts, New York, USA ▼
Hector and Andromache, 1917
Oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna
Rome, Italy ▼
The disquieting muses, 1918
Oil on canvas
Private collection ▼
The prodigal son, 1922
Oil on canvas
Museo d’Arte Contemporanea
Milan, Italy ▼
