Pietro Annigoni

Pietro Annigoni
Pietro Annigoni, Self portrait
Born	7 June 1910 Milan, Italy
Died	28 October 1988(1988-10-28) (aged 78) Florence, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Education	Accademia di Belle Arti Florence, Italy
Known for	Fresco, oil painting, portrait painting, drawing, sculpture
Movement	Realism (visual arts)
Awards	Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI

Pietro Annigoni (7 June 1910 – 28 October 1988) was an Italian portrait and fresco painter. He is best known for his portrait (1956) of Queen Elizabeth II.

Born in Milan in 1910, Annigoni was influenced by the Italian Renaissance. From the end of the 1920s on, he lived mainly in Florence where he studied at the College of the Piarist Fathers.

In 1927, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he attended the courses given by Felice Carena in painting, Giuseppe Graziosi in sculpture, and Celestino Celestini in etching. Annigoni enrolled in the nude class run by the Florentine Circolo degli Artisti, while attending the open class in the same subject at the Academy.

Annigoni exhibited his work for the first time in Florence in 1930 with a group of painters. He had his first individual exhibition two years later, in 1932 at the Bellini Gallery in the Palazzo Ferroni.

In 1932, journalist Ugo Ojetti featured Annigoni in the Arts section of the Corriere della Sera. Also in 1932, he won the Trentacoste prize.

Annigoni was married to Anna Giuseppa Maggini in 1937 until her death of illness in July 1969. They had two children, Benedetto (1939) and Maria Ricciarda. In 1976 he married Rosella Segreto, also a favorite model of the artist.

In May 1988, Annigoni had emergency surgery due to a perforated ulcer, and he did not recover fully from the ailment. He was rushed to the hospital in Florence on October 27, 1988, and died of kidney failure on October 28, 1988. He is buried in the Porte Sante (Holy Doors) cemetery at the Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, overlooking his beloved Florence.

Between 1945 and 1950, Annigoni produced a succession of important and very successful works. In 1947, he signed the manifesto of Modern Realist Painters. In this manifesto the group, which consisted of seven painters, came out in open opposition to abstract art and the various movements that had sprung up in Italy in these years. It was an insignificant detail in the painter's life but it would become a key point of reference in literature about him. Among others who signed the petition were Gregory Sciltian, and brothers Antonio and Xavier Bueno.