Achille Vertunni Biography
Achille Vertunni (Naples, 1826 – Rome, 1897) was an Italian painter. He attended the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples, under the guidance of Gabriele Smargiassi. He was influenced by the Posillipo School. At the biennial Bourbonica exhibition of 1851 he was awarded ex aequo with the painter Nicola Palizzi and in 1853 he moved to Rome. His first themes were inspired by historical events, such as the portrait of Pia dei Tolomei, but he then dedicated himself to landscape which, from the seventies, became the almost exclusive subject of his paintings. Its sunsets in the Roman countryside and in the Pontine Marshes are characteristic, sometimes animated by butteri and herds of buffalo. He participated in the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1878]] and the International Exhibition of Rome in 1883. His works are found at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, at the Art Gallery Moderna in Florence (Torrente near Narni), at the Gallery of Modern Art in Turin (Pontine Marshes, 1863), at the Gallery of Modern Art in Milan (Landscape of Maccarese) and at the Revoltella Museum in Trieste (Roman Camagna). The Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples owns the canvas Campagna Romana, 79.5x48 cm, purchased in 1904. He died in Rome in 1897, after twenty years of progressive paralysis, caused by lead poisoning, caused by the use prolonged contact with pigments based on this material, which is highly harmful to health. He was lovingly cared for until the end by his wife Guendalina and his daughters, Giuseppina and Pia, the last of his thirteen children. In later life his studio in Rome was a point of reference for many Roman critics and artists, frequented by the nobility and politicians of the era. Visitors to his atelier in Via Margutta, in Rome, where Achille Vertunni gave parties and banquets, were historical figures of the time, such as general Alfonso La Marmora, the composer Liszt, Edward VII of England - when he was still Prince of Wales - together with his wife Alexandra of Denmark and the Danish royal family, figures of the Risorgimento and passing visitors of the "Grand Tour".
