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Pietro Longhi
Italian Rococo painter & draftsman
born circa 1701 - died 1785

Also known as: Pietro Falca, Pietro Long.
Student of: Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665-1747).
Father of: Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813)

Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, the first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia; Pietro Longhi adopted the Longhi surname when Pietro Longhi began to paint. Longhi was initially taught by the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra (1666 – 1740), who then recommended the young painter to apprentice with the Bolognese artist, Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665 – 1747), who was highly regarded in his day for both religious works and genre painting.

Italian painter, the son of a goldsmith (his real surname was Pietro Falca), Pietro Longhi tried without much success to become one of the group of eighteenth-century Venetian painters so much in demand for large-scale decorations. His youthful work included frescos in the Palazzo Sagredo which reveal his lack of talent in this field. But at about the age of 40, Longhi managed to find his own creative voice which soon made him a specialist in a highly successful new genre. Drawing on his memories of youthful studies with Giuseppe Maria Crespi (an important precursor to Longhi's brand of genre painting), Pietro Longhi began painting small canvases on everyday subjects, showing real places and people.

Unlike most view-painters at the same time, normally forced to seek foreign patrons, Longhi mainly worked for local patrons and collectors, including the noble families of Grimani, Barbarigo, and Manin. Longhi prepared his work by making careful preparatory sketches. Pietro Longhi concentrated almost exclusively on small-scale canvases depicting the modest day-to-day activities of aristocratic Venetian families. The wonderful amiability of these episodes of no earth-shaking importance is marked by an observant, often gently satirical touch. The playwright Goldoni called Longhi a "man seeking the truth", but his was not a very harassing quest.

In later life Longhi also produced two interesting cycles of paintings. One was a series showing the Seven Sacraments while the other depicted Hunters in the valley. Both are now in the Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia in Venice.

Longhi occasionally painted more than one version of his own compositions, and these again were often duplicated by pupils and followers. Alessandro Longhi (1733-1813), the son of Pietro, was a successful portraitist. - Longhi Pietro oil painting for sale famous paintings Italy - Longhi Pietro famous oil painting Italy sale - oil painting Longhi Pietro Bio, Italy famous oil painting for sale, Longhi Pietro paintings for sale and famous oil paintings sale.

Among his early paintings are some altarpieces and religious themes. In 1734, Pietro Longhi completed frescoes in the walls and ceiling of the hall in Ca' Sagredo, representing the Death of the giants. His work from then on would lead him to be viewed in the future as similar to the Venetian William Hogarth (1697 – 1764), painting subjects and events of everyday life in Venice. These were gallant interior scenes that reflect on the 18th century's turn towards private life and the bourgeois.

His others paintings chronicle daily activities, such as the gambling parlors 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 artist towards his subjects. - Longhi Pietro oil painting for sale famous paintings Italy - Longhi Pietro famous oil painting Italy sale - oil painting Longhi Pietro Bio, Italy famous oil painting for sale, Longhi Pietro paintings for sale and famous oil paintings sale.

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