P. Molmenti Biography
Pompeo Molmenti (1819 - 1894) was born in Motta di Livenza (Treviso) on 3 November 1819. He began painting at a very young age. The first known work is the portrait of his father, painted between 1833 and '34. In 1838 he participated in the exhibition of the Academy of Venice with Santa Teresa, whose traces have been lost. His first admirers and clients were Spiridione and Teresa Papadopoli. It was thanks to them that, after his father's death, he was able to move to Venice and attend courses at the Academy of Fine Arts. His teachers were Ludovico Lipparini and Michelangelo Grigoletti for Elements of Figure, Odorico Politi for Painting. Around 1843-44 he followed, as a "travel painter", Duke Xavier von Blacas to the East through Greece, Syria and Libya. From the experience he drew inspiration for numerous watercolors and pencil drawings purchased by Eugenia Bonaparte, which are currently missing. From '46, for two years, he traveled in Italy, stopping in Florence and Rome. In the early 1960s he went to Paris where he was influenced by the painting of Delacroix and Gericault. In 1851 he obtained the position of adjunct professor of figure elements at the Academy of Venice, holding it until 1865. Among his best-known students were Giacomo Favretto, Guglielmo Ciardi, Luigi Nono and Ettore Tito, future Venetian masters of realism, encouraged by him towards the search for truth. Between 1860 and 1870 he painted portraits of members of the Buzzati family which earned him fame in this genre of representation. In the following decade he dedicated himself to those of the Ferrari family. He died on 16 December 1894 in Venice.
