Giuseppe De Nittis - Snow Effects, 1880

Giuseppe De Nittis [1846-1884] was born on this day in 1846 in the Puglian city of Barletta. Like other 19th-century artists, De Nittis worked out of doors, emulating the plein-air aesthetic and varied light effects of the French Impressionists and Italian Macchiaioli. De Nittis worked in oil, pastel, and as a printmaker. He achieved both national and international fame and spent time working in Rome, Florence, and Paris, where he settled permanently in 1868. He did return to Italy during the Franco-Prussian War between 1870-1873 but returned to Paris where he worked under exclusive contract with the dealer Adolphe Goupil and later for patrons in London. He died in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1884.