Anselmo Bucci (1887-1955) - Montmartre, Mother Catherine, Place Du Tertre, 1912

Anselmo Bucci (1887-1955)
Montmartre, La Mère Catherine, Place Du Tertre, 1912
Oil on canvas
65 x 49 cm
71 x 56 cm with frame
Dated lower left.
Signed and dedicated lower right "A Marie Cordially A Bucci"

Born in Fossombrone, in the province of Pesaro, on May 25, 1887, Anselmo Bucci is an Italian painter and engraver, also author of some important literary texts. He was one of the protagonists of the emerging artistic avant-gardes of the first part of the 20th century, both in Italy and in France. His passion for drawing is revealed very early. The famous painter Francesco Salvini took him under his wing at a very young age, before the young Anselmo joined, in 1905, the Fine Arts of Brera in Milan. However, abhorring pictorial rhetoric, he decided the following year, at the age of 19, to settle in Paris, at the time capital of the artistic avant-garde. In the French capital, Anselmo Bucci lives a difficult existence from a material point of view, but one of the most stimulating on an artistic level. He notably met Gino Severini, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and many others. He gradually came to be known for his engravings, an art in which he became a true master, attracting the attention of critics such as Apollinaire and André Salmon. His most famous engravings are those of futurist inspiration, although still closely linked to a post-impressionist figuration close to Italian classicism. During the years 1912 and 1913, faithful to the tradition of French painters, Bucci decides to travel to Europe and the Mediterranean, where he will study new colors and luminosity. In 1914, when World War I broke out, Anselmo Bucci volunteered to join the "Battalion of Cyclists" in Lombardy, where he joined other Futurist artists and poets such as Marinetti, Boccioni, Sant'Elia and Carlo Erba. The same year, at the Mostra dell'Incisione in Florence, he won the silver medal. War inspired him, and he became one of the most prolific "war painters". The images he published in Paris in 1917 precisely concern moments of the conflict and are entitled "Sketch of the Italian Front". Two years later, he distinguished himself with a series of twelve lithographs entitled "Finis Austriae", always centered on war situations. The Great War having come to an end, Bucci returned regularly for long periods in Paris, attracted by the creative fervor that abounded in the French capital. He now devoted himself fully to painting, exhibited in numerous Italian and French galleries, but his name and his works also began to circulate outside France: in England, Holland and Belgium in particular. In 1920, he was invited to the Venice Biennale. It was around this date that a change of style took place at Anselmo Bucci, which brought him back to a classic turn. He then approached the circle of intellectuals and artists led by the writer Margherita Sarfatti and in 1922, with Sironi, Funi, Dudreville (whom he had already known at the time of Brera), as well as with Malerba, Marussig, Oppi, he gives life to the so-called "20th century" group, the Novecento. In fact, it is he who baptizes it with this name. classicism. In 1920, thanks to his work accomplished during this period, he was invited to the Venice Biennale. In 1926, he participated in the first exhibition of the group "Novecento Italiano" but gradually began to distance himself from the movement, and to throw more and more into the literary adventure, thereby confirming his artistic eclecticism. The outbreak of the Second World War was an opportunity for Bucci, as for the First, to come back into play from an artistic point of view. He thus recycled himself, during the conflict, as a figurative interpreter of the facts of war, in notably producing engravings representing the Navy and the military aviation. His home in Milan, which also houses his studio, was destroyed in 1943. He therefore returned to Monza in the family home. He will spend the last ten years of his existence in total isolation. In 1949, he obtained the last recognition for his artistic work: the Prix Angelicum, which rewards works of sacred art. Anselmo Bucci died in Monza on November 19, 1955 at the age of 68.