Cesare Augusto Detti | Genre painter

A painter from Spoleto who moved to Paris during the Belle Epoque, Cesare Augusto Detti (1847-1914) was an Italian artist, best known for his historical genre paintings in the nineteenth century.

Some of his works are included in the collections of the Uffizi and Galleria Borghese of Rome.

His father, Davide Detti, was an engineer and an amateur painter. As a result, his early interest in art was encouraged.

In 1861, he made the acquaintance of Francesco Coghetti, a painter from Rome who was creating murals at the Teatro Nuovo (now known as the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti).

Coghetti suggested that Detti receive formal training at the Accademia di San Luca, where he was a professor.

Detti studied there until 1866 and came under the influence of Marià Fortuny, who introduced him to the work of the Macchiaioli.

Upon graduating, he began to travel extensively, spending several years in Naples and exhibiting there in 1872.

Although he had originally decided to settle in Rome, he visited Paris in 1876 and met Adolphe Goupil, one of the leading art dealers of his time. Not only did Goupil agree to exhibit his works, he also arranged to make them into engravings for his bourgeois customers.

He eventually decided to stay in Paris and held his first exhibit at the Salon in 1877.

His commitment to Paris was further strengthened when, in 1880, he married Juliette-Emilie Filieuse, with whom he had two daughters and a son.

In 1883, the family relocated to the commune of Bourron-Marlotte, just outside of Paris. There, he became associated with a society of independent landscape painters known as the Groupe de Marlotte.

In 1888, he participated in the Italian Exhibition in London.

In the 1870s he moved to Paris, where he participated at many Salons and was continuously successful.

His works can be seen today in important museums in Italy, as well as collections in America and France.

Nato a Spoleto nel 1847, Cesare Augusto Detti (1847-1914) si trasferisce a Roma nel 1862 e segue all’Accademia di San Luca le lezioni di Francesco Podesti e Francesco Coghetti (che Detti poteva avere conosciuto anche a Spoleto in occasione della realizzazione del sipario del teatro).

Finita l’Accademia nel 1865, Detti apre uno studio in via Margotta e, frequentando gli ambienti romani, incontra alcuni artisti che contribuiranno a determinare il suo stile maturo: Mariano Fortuny e la colonia degli artisti spagnoli con il loro virtuosismo pittorico e il brillante colorismo. Presente alle esposizioni nazionali del 1873 a Roma e del 1872 e 1877 a Napoli, Detti incontra nella città partenopea il famoso mercante d’arte Adolphe Goupil che lo invita a Parigi.

Presente al Salon parigino del 1877, si trasferisce definitivamente a Parigi nel 1880 come pittore già affermato che frequenta Boldini e in contatto con la cultura pittorica di successo del periodo (Meissonier, Gèrome). Incoraggiato da Goupil, che continua ad interessarsi alla sua arte, conosce Ignacio Leon Y Escosura e ne condivide l’amore per l’antiquariato e gli stili del passato. Diventerà anche cognato di Escosura, sposando la sorella della moglie, Emilie Marcy.

L'attenzione del mercante A. Goupil contribuì al suo successo e allargò la notorietà del pittore anche al mercato inglese e americano.

Fu presente alle mostre di Parigi (1889, Temps heureux, L’Aurore, Trois bons amis, Un mariage; 1890, Le tricheur), a Milano (1906, Ballo dell'Opéra-Paris, Raggio di sole, Preghiere della sera); la sua ricchissima produzione fu improntata a quel gusto pasticheur con cui l’artista combinò virtuosismneo fiamminghihi (Il Duca di Guisa, teatro Nuovo, Spoleto) e leziose citazioni da esempi inglesi e francesi del Settecento (La passeggiata in villa, Le signorine Detti e il Ritratto di signora col cagnolino, tutti alla Pinacoteca Comunale di Spoleto), guardando anche a J. L. E. Meissonier e in parte a Fortuny.