Ernesto Rayper

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Ernesto Rayper. Portrait by Francesco Gandolfi (1824-1873)

Ernesto Rayper (1 November 1840, Genoa - 5 August 1873, Stella) was an Italian painter and engraver. He was the founder of what came to be known as the Scuola grigia [it] (Gray School) of landscape painting and was associated with the Macchiaioli.

Biography

In 1859, after receiving his basic education at a

Piarist school and the Collegio dei Tolomei in Siena, he enrolled in courses at the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti and took lessons from Tammar Luxoro.[1] Under his influence, he decided to specialize in landscapes. During 1860, he spent some time in Geneva at the workshops of Alexandre Calame
.

Rural Landscape

Upon returning to Genoa, he strove to develop his own style, distinct from the current

plein aire painting and the Scuola grigia, so-named for Rayper's avoidance of the color black, took shape.[1] Over the next few years, he was joined by Alfredo d'Andrade [it], a Portuguese immigrant who was also an archaeologist, Alberto Issel and Serafín Avendaño, a Galician painter living in Genoa. Later, he began working with a group of artists from Canavese, led by Carlo Pittara.[1]

In 1870 he was named a "Professor of Merit" at the Accademia Ligustica and won a gold medal at the "Esposizione Nazionale di Parma".

The following year, he developed a cancerous tumor on his tongue. After travelling throughout Italy, seeking an effective treatment, he retired to a small town in Savona and died there, aged only thirty-three.[2]

After his death, his work became somewhat neglected until 1926, when a major exhibition was held at the

Palazzo Rosso[1]
and in 1974, at his alma mater, the Accademia Ligustica; sponsored by the City of Genoa.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Brief biography @ Instituto Documentazione Arte Ligure.
  2. ^ Arte in Italia: rivista mensile di belle arti., Editors: Carlo Felice Biscarra and Luigi Rocca. 1873. Obituary by T. Luxoro page 122.

Further reading

  • Vitaliano Rocchiero, "Ottocento pittorico genovese - Ernesto Rayper", in the Rivista Liguria, Feb.1956
  • Vitaliano Rocchiero, Rayper e Musso protagonisti della scuola grigia e comprimari del paesaggismo italiano, (exhibition catalog) Galleria Liguria, 1969
  • Gianfranco Bruno, Ernesto Rayper, Arti Grafiche Giuseppe Lang, 1972

External links

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