Cesare PERUZZI (1894-1995) - Lot 5

Cesare PERUZZI (1894-1995) Portrait of a little girl with a blue dress and a bouquet of flowers Oil on canvas Signed "Peruzzi" upper left 22 x 16 cm Framed NOTICE He devoted himself to drawing from an early age, studying the technique in Macerata, where he met the very young Ivo Pannaggi, who encouraged him to take up painting. In the years that followed, he moved to Rome to enroll at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts. In 1915, he was invited to the Third International Secession Exhibition in Rome, where he exhibited alongside Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Virgilio Guidi and Felice Casorati. He temporarily interrupted his studies during the First World War to fight on the Albanian front. It was during this period that he produced his wartime drawings, which are of particular interest today for their documentary value. After completing his studies, he attended the Académie de France in Rome, where he perfected his nude depictions. From 1923 onwards, he devoted himself mainly to watercolors, producing intimate, delicate works; he took part in numerous exhibitions, including the first and second International Watercolor Exhibitions in Milan in 1923 and 1925, the Maritime Exhibition at the Barcelona International Exhibition in 1929, and the Exhibition of Italian Artists at the Krefeld Museum, where he exhibited his Contadini in riposo (Peasants at Rest). In 1932, Cesare Peruzzi was commissioned by the Universal Congregation to paint the cycle of Seven Episodes from the Life of St. Francis Xavier, in the chapel of the Indian Catholics inside the Basilica of the Holy House, and in 1933, still in the Basilica, he painted episodes from the life of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus. Another commission was for the altarpiece at the Abbey of Santa Maria in Potenza, Porto Recanati, depicting the Virgin Mary, Saint Bernard, founder of the Cistercians, and Saint Anthony Abbot, patron saint of these campaigns.