G. P. Nerli - Citizendia

Girolamo Nerli (1860-1926) was an Italian painter who worked and travelled in Australia and New Zealand in the late 19th century influencing Charles Conder and Frances Hodgkins and helping to move Australian and New Zealand art in new directions. Charles Edward Conder ( 24 October, 1868 – 9 February, 1909) was an English -born painter, who emigrated to Australia Frances Mary Hodgkins ( 28 April 1869 - 13 May 1947) was a New Zealand abstract painter who lived in England His portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Edinburgh, is usually considered the most searching portrayal of the writer. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850–3 December 1894 was a Scottish novelist poet and travel writer, and a representative of Neo-romanticism in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an Art gallery on Queen Street Edinburgh, Scotland.

Born in Siena in Italy on 21 February 1860 to an Italian aristocrat, Ferdinando Pieri Nerli, his full name was Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli. Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Siena. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Events 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria. 1245 - Thomas, the first known Bishop of Finland Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting The fourth of six children he was not a 'Marchese' as he was sometimes styled, or a 'Count', but a 'patrizio di Siena', a minor distinction marking the great antiquity of his family. His father married Henrietta Medwin, an Englishwoman. Her father Thomas Medwin was a minor literary figure in Byron's circle, the author of Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron and of The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley; Medwin was a distant relation of Shelley. Sir Bysshe Shelley 1st Baronet ( 21 June 1731 - 6 January 1815) was the grandfather of Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley

Girolamo studied art in Florence under Antonio Ciseri and Giovanni Muzzioli and was a younger member of the Italian Macchiaioli school, the 'patch painters', an Italian movement anticipating French Impressionism. Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Antonio Ciseri ( October 25, 1821 &ndash March 8, 1891) was a Swiss Artist. Giovanni Muzzioli ( February 10, 1854 - August 5, 1894) was an Italian painter. The Macchiaioli (pronounced mah-key-ay-OH-li were a group of Tuscan painters active in the second half of the nineteenth century who breaking with Impressionism was a 19th-century Art movement that began as a loose association of Paris -based Artists exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s

He went to Australia in 1885 spending time in Melbourne and Sydney where he was an associate of Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton and an influence on Charles Conder at the time of the Heidelberg School. Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4 Thomas William Roberts ( 9 March 1856 &ndash 14 September 1931) usually known simply as Tom was a famous Australian artist and a key Sir Arthur Ernest Streeton (8 April 1867 &ndash 1 September 1943 was an Australian landscape painter Charles Edward Conder ( 24 October, 1868 – 9 February, 1909) was an English -born painter, who emigrated to Australia The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century Nerli's role in that movement has been disputed but his presence and influence are undeniable.

Portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson, 1892. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850–3 December 1894 was a Scottish novelist poet and travel writer, and a representative of Neo-romanticism in

He went first to Melbourne but by 1887 was in Sydney where he encountered Conder. He caused a sensation there late that year with his exhibition of paintings of bacchanalian orgies, and in 1888 his portrait of Myra Kemble the actress attracted much attention at the exhibition of the Royal Art Society at Sydney. The free brushwork and unfinished appearance of the works were as exciting to connoisseurs as the subjects were to the general public. In 1889 he was back in Melbourne, apparently in the company of the Heidelberg painters. Late in 1889 he went to Dunedin in New Zealand for the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition where he encountered the artist Alfred Henry O'Keeffe. Dunedin (dəˈneɪdɪn) Ōtepoti in Maori is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the region of New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island Alfred Henry O'Keeffe (21 July 1858 - 27 July 1941 New Zealand artist and art teacher He went back to Australia in 1890.

In August 1892 he visited Samoa and painted the well-known portrait of R. L. Stevenson, now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850–3 December 1894 was a Scottish novelist poet and travel writer, and a representative of Neo-romanticism in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an Art gallery on Queen Street Edinburgh, Scotland. A portrait in pastel done during the same visit was bought by Scribner and Sons, New York, in 1923. Stevenson wrote some humorous doggerel verse recording their encounter.

In 1893 Nerli returned to Dunedin where he set himself up as a private art teacher. 'Signor Nerli' remained in the city just over three years bringing new vigour to the circle presided over by W.M. Hodgkins and a cosmopolitan glamour to Dunedin's second, bohemian circle of younger painters. William Mathew Hodgkins (1833 - 1898 was a 19th century New Zealand painter He taught Frances Hodgkins, inspired O'Keeffe and reportedly had an affair with Grace Joel, a young woman artist he may also have known in Melbourne. Frances Mary Hodgkins ( 28 April 1869 - 13 May 1947) was a New Zealand abstract painter who lived in England Alfred Henry O'Keeffe (21 July 1858 - 27 July 1941 New Zealand artist and art teacher In 1893 Nerli was elected to the council of the Otago Art Society and in 1894 set up the Otago Art Academy with J. D. Perrett and L. W. Wilson in Dunedin's Octagon. Its life classes employing a professional nude model were so successful that the government run Dunedin School of Art had to hire Nerli for the same purpose. It seems this was the means by which painting from the nude was inaugurated at the school.

Late in 1896 Nerli left Dunedin suddenly, stayed briefly in Wellington and went on to Auckland. Wellington (ˈwælɪŋtən is the Capital of New Zealand, the country's second largest urban area, the The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country He opened a studio there and exhibited at the Auckland Society of Arts in April 1897. He then eloped with Marie Cecilia Josephine Barron whom he married in Christchurch New Zealand, in March 1898. Christchurch (Ōtautahi The largest City in the South Island, it is also the second largest city and third largest urban area of New Zealand She was a Spinster of 23, and he said he was a Bachelor and Artist of 38; he gave his name as Girolamo Pieri Ballati Pecci Nerli, but the surname in the index was "Pecci" ^[1]. The couple immediately sailed for Australia settling first in Sydney and then Melbourne. Nerli and his wife returned to Europe in 1904 where the artist spent the rest of his life, struggling against declining fortunes, between London and Nervi, Genova (Genoa) in Italy. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Nervi is a seaside resort in Liguria, in northwest Italy. Once an independent Comune, it is now a Quartiere of Genoa Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English He died childless in Nervi on 24 June 1926. Events 972 - Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces takes place Year 1926 ( MCMXXVI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

An occasionally brilliant painter Nerli brought something of the new influences emerging in Europe to the Australasian art scene, helping to shift the direction of Australian and New Zealand art. In Charles Conder and Frances Hodgkins he influenced those countries' most notable expatriates. A few of his works have secured him a lasting place in Australia's and New Zealand's art histories. 'The Sitting' (1889) is worthy of Tissot and Nerli's lost work, 'The Ascension' (c. Tissot is a Swiss Watchmaker company founded in 1853. History Tissot was founded by Charles-Felicien Tissot and his son Charles-Emile 1887) was a technical tour de force anticipating aspects of 20th century art. His landscapes of the Heidelberg period, 'Beach Scene, Black Rock' and 'Fitzroy Gardens' (both c. 1889) show him combining the new objectivity which superseded romantic landscape with a lyricism worthy of the French Impressionists. However, his greatest achievements are a few penetrating portraits, that of Robert Louis Stevenson already mentioned, his 'Portrait of Dr. D. M. Stuart' (1894), 'Portrait of W. M. Hodgkins' (1893) in the Hocken Collections Dunedin, and his 'Portrait of a Young Woman Artist' (c. The Hocken Library (also known by its Southern Māori name of Te Uare Taoka o Hākena) is a research library and historical archive based in the New Zealand 1889), also in the Hocken. These works capture elusive psychological states, Stevenson's illness and Stuart's nearness to death. Nerli's 'Portrait of a Girl' (1894?) in the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery is a minor masterpiece, briiliantly evoking the ambivalence of adolescence. The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand.

Nerli is represented in the Australian National Gallery, most of the Australian state galleries and the principal public collections of New Zealand.

List of Works

Girl in sunbonnet, circa 1897, oil on canvas. Collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

At Rotorua, circa 1897, oil on panel. Collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

References

^ Intentions to Marry Notice dated 5 March for marriage in Registry Office Christchurch; Ref BDM 20/46 No 94 Page 313

Brown, H. G. & Keith, H. (1969 & 1988) An Introduction to New Zealand Painting 1839-1980 Auckland, NZ: David Bateman. ISBN 0-908610-81-5.
Dunn, M. (2005) Nerli an Italian Painter in the South Pacific Auckland, NZ: Auckland University Press. ISBN 1-86940-335-5.
Entwisle, P. (1984) William Mathew Hodgkins & his Circle Dunedin, NZ: Dunedin Public Art Gallery. ISBN 0-473-00263-9
Entwisle, P. Dunn, M. & Collins, R. (1988) Nerli An Exhibition of Paintings & Drawings Dunedin: NZ Dunedin Public Art Gallery. ISBN 0-9597758-4-6.
Entwisle, P. (1993) Nerli, Girolamo in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume Two 1870-1900 Wellington, NZ: Bridget Williams Books, Department of Internal Affairs. ISBN 0-908912-49-8.

List of Works

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