Pietro Longhi was a Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 of contemporary scenes of life.

Biography

Pietro Longhi was born in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint. He was initially taught by the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra

Antonio Balestra was an Italian painter of the Rococo period.Born in Verona, he first apprenticed there with Giovanni Zeffio. By 1690 he moved to Venice, where he worked for three years under Antonio Bellucci, then moved to Bologna and then to paint in Carlo Maratta's workshop in Rome. In 1694, he...

, who then recommended the young painter to apprentice with the Bolognese

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 Giuseppe Maria Crespi

Giuseppe Crespi

Giuseppe Maria Crespi , nicknamed Lo Spagnuolo , was an Italian late Baroque painter of the Bolognese School. His eclectic output includes religious paintings and portraits, but he is now most famous for his genre paintings.-Biography:Crespi was born in Bologna to Girolamo Crespi and Isabella Cospi...

, who was highly regarded in his day for both religious and genre painting and was influenced by the work of Dutch painters. Longhi returned to Venice before 1732. He was married in 1732 to Caterina Maria Rizzi, by whom he had eleven children (only three of which reach the age of maturity).

Among his early paintings are some altarpieces and religious themes. His first major documented work was an altarpiece for the church of San Pellegrino in 1732. In 1734, he completed frescoes in the walls and ceiling of the hall in Ca' Sagredo, representing the Death of the giants. Henceforward, his work would lead him to be viewed in the future as the Venetian William Hogarth

William Hogarth

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

, painting subjects and events of everyday life in Venice. The gallant interior scenes reflect the 18th century's turn towards the private and the bourgeois

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

.

Many of his paintings show Venetians at play, such as the depiction of the crowd of genteel citizens awkwardly gawking at a freakish Indian rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

 (see image). This painting, on display at the National Gallery

National gallery

The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, chronicles Clara the rhinoceros

Clara the rhinoceros

Clara the rhinoceros was a female Indian Rhinoceros who became famous during 17 years of touring Europe in the mid-18th century. She arrived in Europe in Rotterdam in 1741, becoming the fifth living rhinoceros to be seen in Europe in modern times since Dürer's Rhinoceros in 1515...

 brought to Europe in 1741 by a Dutch sea captain and impresario from Leyden, Douvemont van der Meer. This rhinoceros was exhibited in Venice in 1751. There are two versions of this painting, nearly identical except for the unmasked portraits of two men in Ca' Rezzonico

Ca' Rezzonico

Ca' Rezzonico is a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. Today it is a public museum dedicated to 18th century Venice. - Design :Ca' Rezzonico stands on the right bank of the canal, at the point where it is joined by the Rio di San Barnaba. The site was previously occupied by two houses...

 version. Ultimately, there may be a punning joke to the painting, since the young man on the left holds aloft the sawed off horn (metaphor for cuckold

Cuckold

Cuckold is a historically derogatory term for a man who has an unfaithful wife. The word, which has been in recorded use since the 13th century, derives from the cuckoo bird, some varieties of which lay their eggs in other birds' nests...

ry) of the animal. Perhaps this explains the difference between the unchaperoned women.

Other paintings chronicle the daily activities such as the gambling parlors (Riddoti) that proliferated in the 18th century. In some, the insecure or naive posture and circumstance, the puppet-like delicacy of the persons, seem to suggest a satirical perspective of the artists toward his subjects. Nearly half of the figures in his genre paintings are faceless, hidden behind Venetian Carnival

Carnival of Venice

The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival starts 40 days before easter and ends on Shrove Tuesday , the day before Ash Wednesday.-History:...

 masks. Like Crespi before him, Longhi was commissioned to paint seven canvases documenting the seven Catholic sacraments.

Longhi is well-known as a draughtsman, whose drawing

Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

s were often done for their own sake, rather than as studies for paintings. Pietro's son, Alessandro

Alessandro Longhi

Alessandro Longhi was a Venetian portrait painter and printmaker in etching . He is known best for his oil portraits of Venetian nobles of state. His father was the famed genre painter Pietro Longhi. He trained under his father and Giuseppe Nogari...

, was also an accomplished painter.

A paraphrase of Bernard Berenson

Bernard Berenson

Bernard Berenson was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. He was a major figure in pioneering art attribution and therefore establishing the market for paintings by the "Old Masters".-Personal life:...

 states that "Longhi painted for the Venetians passionate about painting, their daily lives, in all dailiness, domesticity, and quotidian mundane-ness. In the scenes regarding the hairdo and the apparel of the lady, we find the subject of gossip of the inopportune barber, chattering of the maid; in the school of dance, the amiable sound of violins. It is not tragic... but upholds a deep respect of customs, of great refinement, with an omnipresent good humor distinguishes the paintings of the Longhi from those of Hogarth, at times pitiless and loaded with omens of change".

From 1763 Longhi was Director of the Academy of Drawing and Carving. From this period, he began to work extensively with portraiture

Portraiture

Portraiture may refer to:* The creation of any portrait, an artistic representation of a person, including** Portrait painting.** Portrait photography.** Self Portait. MS...

, and was actively assisted by his son Alessandro. On 8 May 1785, following a short illness, he died, possibly due to a heart attack.

Works

• San Pellegrino sentenced to execution, 1730–1732, oil on canvas, 400x340, parish church of San Pellegrino
• Adoration of the Magi, 1730–1732, oil on canvas, 190x150, Venice, Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista
• Fall of the giants, frescoes, Venice, Ca 'Sagredo, 1734,
• Shepherd sitting, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico
• Pastorello standing, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico
• Shepherdess with flower, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico
• Shepherdess with cock, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x48, Bassano, Museo Civico
• Pastorello standing, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x45, Rovigo, Museo del Seminario
• The spinner, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The laundresses, 1740, oil on panel, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The happy couple, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The polenta, 1740, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• Drinkers, 1740–1745, oil on canvas, 61x48, Milan, Galleria d'Arte Moderna
• The concert, 1741, oil on canvas, 60x48, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The dance class, about 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The tailor, c. 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The toilet, ca 1741, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The presentation, about 1741, oil on canvas, 64x53, Paris, Louvre
• The visit to the library, about 1741, oil on canvas, 59x44, Worcester Art Museum
• Frescoes, 1744, Venice, Church of San Pantalon
• The awakening of the knight, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x60, Windsor, royal collections
• The blindman's buff, 1744, oil on canvas, 48x58, Windsor, royal collections
• Fainting, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x61, Washington, National Gallery
• The game of the pan, 1744, oil on canvas, 49x61, Washington, National Gallery
• The visit to the lady, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum
• Meeting of the Prosecutor and his wife, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum
• The visit to the Lord, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, New York, Metropolitan Museum
• The milliner, 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, New York, Metropolitan Museum
• Family group , 1746, oil on canvas, 61x49, London, National Gallery
• The visit of the Prosecutor, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x49, London, National Gallery
• The Dentist, c.1750, oil on canvas, 50x62, Milan, Brera
• The laundresses, c. 1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone
• The polenta, c.1750, oil on canvas, 60x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone
• The spinner, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone
• Drunks, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Castle Zoppola, Pordenone
• The spinner, c.1750, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• The spinners, c.1750, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Querini Piancoteca Stampalia
• The peasant woman asleep, c.1750, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• The seller of fritole, c.1750, oil on canvas, 62x51, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The rhino, 1751, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The rhino, c. 1751, oil on canvas, 60x57, London, National Gallery
• The soothsayer, 1752, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The school work, 1752, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• Geography lesson, 1752, oil on canvas, 61x49, Venice, Fondazione Querini Stampalia.
• The pharmacist, 1752, oil on canvas, 60x48, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The tickle, 1755, oil on canvas, 61x48, Madrid, Thyssen Collection
• Baptism, 1755, oil on canvas, 60x49, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• The charlatan, 1757, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• Alchemists, 1757, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The Card Players, 1760, oil on canvas, 60x47, Milan, Galleria d'Arte Moderna
• The Music Lesson, 1760, oil on copper, 45x58, Baltimore , Walters Art Gallery
• Philosopher Pythagoras, 1762, oil on canvas, 130x91, Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia
• The cabin of the lion, 1762, oil on canvas, 61x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• Francesco Guardi, 1764, oil on canvas, 132x100, Venice, Ca 'Rezzonico
• The arrival of the Lord, c.1770, oil on canvas, 62x50, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia
• The family Michiel, 1780, oil on canvas, 49x61, Venice, Pinacoteca Querini Stampalia

External links

• National Gallery, London