Giorgio de Chirico

GIORGO DE CHIRICO (Greece, 1888 – Rome, 1978).
“Il fiume Misterioso,” 1969.
Four-color lithograph on paper, Artist’s Proof.
Signed, numbered, and titled in pencil.
Dry stamp by Alberto Caprini Stampatore Roma and dry stamp by Giorgio de Chirico.
Measurements: 50.5 x 70 cm.

Italian painter born in Greece to Italian parents. De Chirico is known, among other things, for founding the Metaphysical School art movement.
He studied art in Athens and Florence before moving to Germany in 1906, where he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There, he became acquainted with the works of the philosophers Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, in addition to studying the works of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger. He returned to Italy in the summer of 1909 to spend six months in Milan. In early 1910, he moved back to Florence, where he painted “The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon,” the first of his works in the “Metaphysical Square” series, following a personal experience in Piazza Santa Croce. The following year, De Chirico spent a few days in Turin on his way to Paris and was struck by what he called “the metaphysical aspect of Turin,” which was evident in the architecture of its arcades and squares. De Chirico lived in Paris until he was drafted into the army in May 1915, during World War I.
The paintings De Chirico created between 1909 and 1914 are those for which he is best known. This period is known as the Metaphysical period. The works are notable for their images evoking somber and oppressive atmospheres. At the beginning of this period, his subjects were urban landscapes inspired by Mediterranean cities. Gradually, the painter’s focus shifted toward studies of rooms crammed with objects, sometimes inhabited by mannequins.
Almost immediately, the writer Guillaume Apollinaire praised de Chirico’s work and helped introduce him to the group that would later become known as the Surrealists. In 1922, Yves Tanguy wrote that he was so impressed by a work by De Chirico in a gallery window that he decided to become an artist, even though he had never touched a paintbrush in his life. Other artists who have acknowledged Giorgio de Chirico’s influence include Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, and René Magritte. De Chirico is considered one of the greatest influences on the Surrealist movement.
De Chirico later abandoned the metaphysical style and produced several more realistic works, with modest success.