Silvestro Lega Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Silvestro Lega (Modigliana, 8 December 1826 – Florence, 21 November 1895) was an Italian painter. He is considered, together with Giovanni Fattori and Telemaco Signorini, among the greatest exponents of the Macchiaioli movement. Read the full biography

Silvestro Lega (Modigliana, 8 December 1826 – Florence, 21 November 1895) was an Italian painter. He is considered, together with Giovanni Fattori and Telemaco Signorini, among the greatest exponents of the Macchiaioli movement. Born in Romagna, he carried out his youth training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence where he was a pupil of Giuseppe Bezzuoli. After a debut with fundamentally academic traits, he approached the spot technique of the artists who gathered at the Caffè Michelangelo, making an evolution in a realist sense but with personal characteristics. A very technically gifted painter, he created his best works between 1867 and 1868, such as «Il canto dello stornello», «Il pergolato», «La visita», which remain among the highest works of the Italian nineteenth century. The content of his paintings tends to enhance the delicate simplicity and pure affections that characterize the Italian lower middle class of those years. In his paintings there is always a bit of nostalgic emotion for this small world lived in small urban centers.