Francesco Loiacono Biography
Francesco Lojacono (Palermo, 16 May 1838 – Palermo, 26 February 1915) was an Italian painter, considered the most important nineteenth-century Sicilian landscape painter. He was among the first painters to use photography as a reference to create his works. Lojacono was initiated into painting by his father Luigi, a painter himself. He was then a student of Salvatore Lo Forte. In 1856, at the age of 18, he moved to Naples, where he honed his skills by frequenting various traveling painters and above all by entering the school of the brothers Giuseppe and Filippo Palizzi. He moved often from the Neapolitan city: first to Florence, where he came into contact with the Macchiaioli school. In 1860, at the age of 22, after the landing of the Thousand in Marsala, he took part in the Expedition of the Thousand with his father Luigi and his brother Salvatore.[3] In July he was wounded in the Battle of Milazzo but continued to fight. On 1 October, under the orders of Nino Bixio and together with other artists, including Vincenzo Ragusa, he participated in the Battle of Volturno.[4] On 29 August 1862, together with Giuseppe and Menotti Garibaldi, he was taken prisoner in Aspromonte. In 1862 he returned to Sicily, during the previous six eventful years he had frequented various well-known personalities, achieving a fair amount of fame. In 1864 he exhibited Mare all'Acquasanta in Florence, purchased by Luigi Federico Menabrea, future President of the Council of the Kingdom of Italy. In 1870 he exhibited the painting The Oreto Valley in Vienna and Paris, two years later he was appointed Professor of Landscape at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and in 1874 his works were exhibited in Bordeaux. In the eighties of the century he met the young painter Gennaro Pardo in Palermo, of whom he became a friend and mentor, and who would become his artistic heir. Earning the nickname Thief of the Sun, or Painter of the Sun for his ability to infuse brightness into his canvases, in 1878 he exhibited his works at the International Exhibition in Paris, consolidating his international fame. In 1891-1892 he presented L'estate at the National Exhibition of Palermo, and in 1895 he participated in the first Venice Biennale to which he would also be invited later. The Palermitan landscape architect Ettore De Maria Bergler was his pupil. Among his clients there were several aristocrats: in 1883 The Unexpected Arrival was purchased in Rome by Queen Margherita of Savoy for the Quirinale Palace, After the Rain was created in 1886 for Princess Giulia Lanza di Trabìa, and The Summer was purchased by King Umberto I in 1891. Among the many critical comments, in 1883 Gabriele D'Annunzio published the most enthusiastic comments. One of his students was Michele Catti, who together with Lojacono and Leto constitute the canonical triad of the nineteenth-century Sicilian landscape.
