Lot 229: Riccardo Meacci (Italian, b. 1856), "View of Santa

Riccardo Meacci (Italian, b. 1856), "View of Santa Maria Novella, Florence", watercolor, signed lower right, sight 7 3/4 in. x 4 1/4 in., matted and framed. Note: Meacci studied under Luigi Mussini (Italian, 1813-1888) at the Instituti di Belle Arti in Siena from 1871-1880. After spending a year working in the area, he moved to Florence. It was there that Meacci was exposed to the work and artistic tenets of the English Pre-Raphaelites, likely in the person of John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (English, 1829-1908) who had recently immigrated to the city. Meacci was able to successfully combine aspects of this new style with more traditional Italian painting techniques, and he soon found himself a favorite of the expatriate aristocratic English society. His appealing, precisely lined watercolors and tempera paintings inevitably made their way to England where he received commissions from Queen Victoria, the Duke of Connaught, and the Earl of Lothian, among others. Meacci was also appreciated in his own country; the Palazzo Pitti commissioned a series of three paintings, and he designed murals for various churches in Siena and Florence. Reference: Bénézit. Dictionnaire des Peintres. Librairie Grund. 1976. Vol. VII, p 297.