Giovanni Napoleone Pellis Biography
Giovanni Napoleone Pellis was born on 19 February 1888 in Ciconicco di Fagagna, a small agricultural center in central Friuli. In Venice in 1895, the Biennale exhibitions opened, an international showcase of "official" art, entrenched in academic positions. The young artists often rejected by the juries of the Biennials, starting from 1908, presented their works in the alternative space offered to them by the Opera Bevilacqua La Masa in Ca' Pesaro, then directed by Nino Barbantini, where, starting from 1909, Giovanni Napoleone Pellis participates in various collective exhibitions together with Gino Rossi, Arturo Martini, Umberto Moggioli, Ugo Valeri and other painter friends. In 1914 he moved to Rome. In the capital he met several artists including De Chirico, Carena, Drei, Oppo, Selva, Trombadori and participated in interventionist demonstrations. In the early twenties he moved to Sauris, seeking new inspiration in solitude. He participated in the Venice International Art Biennale in 1922 with the large canvas of Il Viatico, which was purchased by the Marangoni Foundation of Udine and which today can be seen at the Gallery of Modern Art. In 1924 he went to Rome again, benefiting from the Marangoni scholarship, but had to return to Friuli due to the precarious economic conditions, also due to the monetary devaluation following the War. For some years he remained a guest in San Giorgio di Nogaro, with his brother Giacomo. In 1931 he built his house at the foot of the Udine Castle hill with his own hands and with a few workers and in 1932 he married Luigia Zennaro, a drawing teacher. In those years he began to alternate long stays in the mountains with periods in Udine. During the last years of his activity he participated in various group exhibitions and his last personal exhibition was held in 1956 in Florence. Now he stays for long periods in Valbruna at the "Keil" hotel from where he often writes long letters or postcards to his wife Gina and daughter Graziella. The last of these letters dates back to 30 January 1962. He began to paint a canvas, an Alpine view, which remained unfinished: his last work. In fact, on 6 February of that same year he passed away in Valbruna. The funeral was celebrated in the Udine church of San Cristoforo and his remains were subsequently transported to Ciconicco di Fagagna, his hometown and buried here.
