Michele Catti Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Michele Catti (Palermo, 5 April 1855 – Palermo, 4 July 1914) was an Italian painter, considered one of the most important Sicilian landscape painters of the nineteenth century. After a brief apprenticeship at the studio of the painter Francesco Lojacono, who abandoned the meticulous exercises he was obliged to carry out as an apprentice, he approached nature more directly. Read the full biography

Michele Catti (Palermo, 5 April 1855 – Palermo, 4 July 1914) was an Italian painter, considered one of the most important Sicilian landscape painters of the nineteenth century. After a brief apprenticeship at the studio of the painter Francesco Lojacono, who abandoned the meticulous exercises he was obliged to carry out as an apprentice, he approached nature more directly. At his first public appearance at the Promotrice in Palermo in 1875 he exhibited the work Autumn Storm, he was noticed and admired by the Frenchman Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and he exhibited again the following year with the painting Winter Sunset . In those same years Catti became friends with the Palermo painter Vincenzo Ragusa (1841-1927) who, having returned from Japan, transferred to him his interest in oriental painting which influenced him in the execution of some decorations in patrician houses Palermo. He thought about opening a school in Japan, but the sad economic situation and his precarious state of health kept him from his goal every time. In 1881 he was present with the Crepuscolo navy at the Fine Arts Exhibition of the National Exhibition in Milan; also from 1881 is Garibaldi's landing in Marsala. In 1891 he exhibited again in Milan and at the Promotrice of Palermo, where he was also present in 1893. In 1892 he painted Castel di Tusa and in 1896 he achieved personal success at the Exhibition which was held at the artistic club of Palermo with the paintings Summer, Spring, Autumn and Winter. Again in Palermo he held a solo exhibition in 1898 and in 1899 he exhibited at the Fine Arts exhibition organized at the Massimo theatre. The meeting with Giuseppe De Nittis was important for Catti and could explain certain openings towards French experiences. From 1914 are the melancholy The Fair of the Dead and 2 November (both in the Gallery of Modern Art in Palermo), with which he almost seems to presage his imminent death, which occurred on 4 July 1914 in Palermo.