Biography of Carlo Fornara

Carlo Fornara was born in 1871 in Prestinone in Val Vigezzo, an area famous for the numerous painters who earned a living painting oratories and churches. He trained at the School of Santa Maria Maggiore, and in particular studied under Enrico Cavalli, a talented artist who had moved at a young age to Lyon, a city that had a profound influence on his life and artistic development. Cavalli had contributed to transforming the school from what was essentially a centre for marketing portrait and decorative art into a fully-fledged atelier, and helped bring the Italian artists closer to French culture. In Lyon, Fornara developed a highly personal vision of still-life painting, a vision he was to return to at a later stage of his artistic life when he focused exclusively on the inner world and used the landscape as a backdrop to the concepts he had learned at Santa Maria. In the spring of 1891 he exhibited La bottega del calderaio and Ricordanze at the 1st Triennial of Brera, which marked the official launch of divisionism in Italy. On returning to Lyon, Fornara placed lighting at the centre of his experimentation. His research into colour and form conducted in the two-year period 1895-97 culminated in the astounding En plein air, without doubt one of the most significant works in late nineteenth century Italian painting. The French title meaning In the open air is a conscious reference to one of the key issues of the verist debate current in France since the 1830s, namely whether in order to be "truthful" an artist must paint in direct contact with nature or whether it is better to be faithful to the essence of reality by working in the atelier, either from memory or using sketches and studies. En plein air was rejected at the Triennal of Brera in 1897, but the work allowed Fornara to enter to the circle of Alberto Grubicy and to be chosen as Segantini's co-worker on the big Engadinese painting for the Paris Exposition of 1900. En plein air marked Fornara's admission to the divisionism movement and launched him once and for all into the world of contemporary art, allowing him to take part in all national and international exhibitions over the following twenty-five years. In the 1920s Fornara broke away from divisionism and moved towards a more realistic style that sought to convey the poetry of truth. He returned to painting in a chromatic language derived from impressionism. At the same time he began to travel less and shut himself off in a period of reflection and meditation. He made the irrevocable decision never to take part again in official exhibitions and began a period of intense correspondence with the numerous authors who devoted monographs to him.

Biography taken from Catalogue Fornara. Un maestro del Divisionismo, Skira, 1998 and from the press review of the eponymous exhibition.

Biography of Carlo Fornara

Carlo Fornara was born in 1871 in Prestinone in Val Vigezzo, an area famous for the numerous painters who earned a living painting oratories and churches. He trained at the School of Santa Maria Maggiore, and in particular studied under Enrico Cavalli, a talented artist who had moved at a young age to Lyon, a city that had a profound influence on his life and artistic development. Cavalli had contributed to transforming the school from what was essentially a centre for marketing portrait and decorative art into a fully-fledged atelier, and helped bring the Italian artists closer to French culture. In Lyon, Fornara developed a highly personal vision of still-life painting, a vision he was to return to at a later stage of his artistic life when he focused exclusively on the inner world and used the landscape as a backdrop to the concepts he had learned at Santa Maria. In the spring of 1891 he exhibited La bottega del calderaio and Ricordanze at the 1st Triennial of Brera, which marked the official launch of divisionism in Italy. On returning to Lyon, Fornara placed lighting at the centre of his experimentation. His research into colour and form conducted in the two-year period 1895-97 culminated in the astounding En plein air, without doubt one of the most significant works in late nineteenth century Italian painting. The French title meaning In the open air is a conscious reference to one of the key issues of the verist debate current in France since the 1830s, namely whether in order to be "truthful" an artist must paint in direct contact with nature or whether it is better to be faithful to the essence of reality by working in the atelier, either from memory or using sketches and studies. En plein air was rejected at the Triennal of Brera in 1897, but the work allowed Fornara to enter to the circle of Alberto Grubicy and to be chosen as Segantini's co-worker on the big Engadinese painting for the Paris Exposition of 1900. En plein air marked Fornara's admission to the divisionism movement and launched him once and for all into the world of contemporary art, allowing him to take part in all national and international exhibitions over the following twenty-five years. In the 1920s Fornara broke away from divisionism and moved towards a more realistic style that sought to convey the poetry of truth. He returned to painting in a chromatic language derived from impressionism. At the same time he began to travel less and shut himself off in a period of reflection and meditation. He made the irrevocable decision never to take part again in official exhibitions and began a period of intense correspondence with the numerous authors who devoted monographs to him.

Biography taken from Catalogue Fornara. Un maestro del Divisionismo, Skira, 1998 and from the press review of the eponymous exhibition.