82 - Francesco Zuccarelli (Pitigliano 1702 – Florence 1788)

Francesco Zuccarelli (Pitigliano 1702 – Florence 1788) Landscape with Figures Oil on canvas 40 x 61 cm A painter of Tuscan origin who trained in Rome, Francesco Zuccarelli is considered the leading Venetian and Italian exponent of the Arcadian movement in 18th-century landscape painting. He began his artistic training under Paolo Anesi, alongside Giovanni Maria Morandi and Pietro Nelli. After a brief return to Tuscany, he left Florence to move to Venice around 1732. In Venice, he made a name for himself among the local and English nobility thanks to Consul Joseph Smith, who sold his collection to King George III in 1762. His stylistic innovation—which many described as “French-style” due to its transalpine elegance—influenced not only local painters (Giuseppe Zais, Giovanni Battista Cimaroli, Domenico Pecchio, Antonio Diziani, Francesco Antonio Canal, and Giuseppe Zocchi), but also the Cignaroli dynasty of Piedmontese landscape painters. He spent extended periods in England—first for a decade beginning in 1752, and then again between 1765 and 1771. Upon his return to Venice, he became a member of the Academy, serving as its president in 1772. In the final years of his life, he divided his time between Venice and Paris, also staying in Rome before returning to his native Tuscany, where he died. Francesco Zuccarelli (Pitigliano 1702 – Florence 1788) Landscape with Figures Oil on canvas 40 x 61 cm