Alfredo Pina (1887-1966) Bronze Baby Bust

Bronze baby head by A.Pina (1887-1966) signed A.Pina bears an illegible date Pannini lost wax casting stamp on a wooden base Alfred Pina, born in Milan on December 13, 1887 and died in Mesves-sur_Loir on December 22, 1966, is a French sculptor of Italian origin. Biography The Italian Grand National Prize for Sculpture rewarded his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan in 1904. Alfred Pina follows Professor Broggi's artistic anatomy courses. He goes to Bologna, then to Rome. Meeting French artists made him want to know Paris, where he arrived in 1911. Alfred Pina rented the orangery at the Château des Imbergères in Sceaux and exhibited at the Salon des artistes from 1911 to 1914. He received numerous orders for busts, and tries his hand at wood engraving. After the outbreak of the First World War, Alfred Pina went into exile in Montpellier, where the museum acquired a bust of Beethoven. When the war was over, he returned to Paris and established himself in Montparnasse, where he rented a workshop on rue du Maine, adjacent to that of Antoine Bourdelle. The retrospective exhibition of his works at the Allard gallery in 1920 was a great success. The Salon des Tuileries refuses its bust of Victor Hugo. At the beginning of the twenties, Alfred Pina settled in Nièvre. He acquired a stone quarry in Malvaux which he used to fulfill his numerous commissions for war memorials. Devoid of business acumen, with the sale of the quarry he bought a farm of around thirty hectares in Mesves-sur-Loire. More skilled at shaping the earth than turning it, he returned to Paris, leaving his farm in the care of a friend, Marcelle Lefèvre. He found his Italian friends, the painters Arduino Colato, Varèse and Sili Prandi, the Swiss sculptor Wegener, the engraver Rappa. A universal competition launched by Benit Mussolini designated him for the project of Dante's tomb which would be his masterpiece. He returns to Rome. On his return to France in 1929, he organized an exhibition of Italian artists from the capital at the Cercle on rue Boissy d'Anglas. The bronzes from Dante's tomb were sent to be melted during the Second World War. In his work published in 1929 (see bibliography), Gaston de Pawlowski writes: “Pina, also, a continuator of Michelangelo and of Rodin has understood how to build an entirely new artistic world on ancient foundations”. Alfred Pina settles in Mesves-sur-Loire, marries Antoinette Meunier and obtains French nationality. He exhibited in Nevers and Vezelay where he participated in an exhibition of religious art. He died in Mesves-sur-Loire on December 22, 1966, he is buried in the municipal cemetery where his lifelong friend, the painter Arduino Colato (1880-1954), is also located.