Michele Catti

Michele Catti (5 April 1855 – 4 July 1914) was an Italian artist, considered one of the most important Sicilian landscape painters of the Belle Époque.

Biography Catti was born in Palermo to Andrea Catti and Carmela Riotta. His father's cousin Luigi Natoli, who would become famous himself as a writer under the pseudonym William Galt and also an important patron for Michele in this period. Despite the fact that the relationship between the two remained difficult, his father arranged for his son to start working as a clerk at the court of Palermo. This work was a restraint for a bohemian like him. During this time he spent a great deal of time with Luigi Natoli, who encouraged him in his painting and introduced him to the Palermo salons of the wealthy Florio, Lanza and Trabia families and studios of the main artistic personalities of the time. The young Michele Catti, brilliant and extrovert, gained the esteem of the painter Francesco Lojacono, the foremost Sicilian landscape artist in this period, who took him in as a pupil. Catti initially followed the lessons of the Lojacono with great enthusiasm and, distinguished for his talent and disposition, became his student. But tired of focusing on technical painting and the sensitivity of Lojacono, he soon moved on. thumb Tempo piovoso. Undated. Oil on wood, 41 x 24 cm, private collection. Around 1875, Catti met the artist Vincenzo Ragusa, who had just returned to Palermo with his wife, artist O'Tama, from Japan, where he had opened a painting school that had been very successful. He immediately hit it off with him, and enthusiastic about the many Japanese components he had introduced in his art, they planned to open a school together, but the sad economic situation and the precarious state of his health prevented this. In 1875 Catti decided to participate in the exhibition organized in Montevergini, for the Congress of Scientists held in Palermo. Catti, unknown to anyone, prepared a work especially for the exhibition, Burrasca d’autunno, a canvas of 50 x 80 cm. His painting was considered one of the most beautiful works of the exhibition and one of the men who bestowed him with such compliments was Francesco Lojacono. thumb Marina. Undated. Oil on canvas, 30 x 67 cm. Private collection. In 1881 he participated in the Fine Arts Exhibition of the Milan National Exhibition with the seascape Crepuscolo. Nonetheless, Michele Catti took only one trip outside of Sicily in his whole life. Together with Luigi Natoli, he went to Rome in 1883. There the painter Francesco Paolo Michetti, admiring his paintings, invited him to work in his studio, but Catti appears to have declined. He went back after several months with the conviction of devoting himself entirely to painting the reality of Sicily.

Catti exhibited in Palermo and also outside the island, but he had little contact with artists from other regions, although his works include typical techniques and manners of the Tuscan Macchiaioli painters and the Impressionists themselves. Meeting and befriending painter Giuseppe De Nittis was therefore important to Catti, as he could talk of his French experiences and the local art movements. thumb Viale della Libertà. 1895. Oil on canvas, 97 x 198 cm. Collection Circolo Artistico Palermo.thumb Autunno a Palermo. Undated. Oil on canvas, 31 x 16 cm. Private collection His most mature works, characterized by a smooth brushstroke and a robust and vibrant style, are from the early twentieth-century: he appreciated sad autumn atmospheres, gray skies, and cold windy days, which he portrayed with dim and melancholic tones. In 1901 he composed Donna a passeggio, in 1903 Paesaggio paludoso, in 1906 Via Libertà and Donna che raccoglie i fiori, in 1908 Scogli a riva, in 1910 Alberi a riva, Barche, Marina con scogli. Organized by Edoardo Alfano, he held a large personal exhibition in 1910 in Palermo where thirty-six of his works were presented. In 1911 he was awarded the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Rome for the picture Ultime foglie (Il viale della Libertà in una giornata di pioggia) of 1906. Apart from his works in Palermo's Galleria d'Arte Moderna, the Fondazione Sicilia at Villa Zito and numerous galleries, most of Catti's works remain in private collections, primarily in Palermo, Sicily - his homeland, as Prince Umberto of Savoy said in 1875.

Exhibitions Exhibited at Palermo (exhibition of Montevergini) of 'Burrasca d'autunno', bought by Prince Umberto of Savoy, 1875 Exhibited and rewarded at Palermo, 1876 Exhibited at Naples, 1877 Participated in an exhibition in Naples, 1887 Participated in the National Exhibition of Turin, 1880 Participated in the National Exhibition of Milan, 1881 Participated in the National Exhibition of Palermo, 1891 Exhibited at the Promotrice of Palermo, 1893 Exhibited at Circolo Artistico, Palermo, 1896 Exhibited in Palermo, 1898 Participated in the exhibition of the Belle Arti in Teatro Massimo, 1900 Exhibited in Palermo, 1910 Exhibition in Palermo, 1929 Exhibition in Rome, 1953 Exhibition in Palermo at the Whitaker Foundation, 1982 Exhibition in Agrigento, Complesso Chiaramontano, 2001 Exhibition in Agrigento, Complesso Chiaramontano, 2007 Exhibition in Palermo, Galleria Beatrice, 2011 Exhibition in Palermo, Fondazione Sant'Elia, 2013

Selected works