Rubens Santoro | Venice painting

Rubens Santoro (October 26, 1859 in Mongrassano, Province of Cosenza, Calabria - December 30, 1941 in Naples) was an Italian painter*.

• Biography

He moved to Naples at 10 years of age, to study literature, but his inclination was painting. He only briefly enrolled at the Neapolitan Academy, instead, real life was his model. His first work was a small and simple genre piece: A Girl who Laughs, exhibited at the Promotrice. Domenico Morelli* took note and encouraged him.

He began painting landscapes at Granatello, where the painter Mariano Fortuny was visiting. Fortuny commented to his fellow painter that:

Many end up where you started .... (you) continue to study more from life; of the ancient painters only two or three will learn from nature to add to their art. I had to work twelve years, and God knows what and how much effort, to break the gates of the Academy within which I had imprisoned myself, while you breathe the open and have attained it already.

Santoro continually changed his vistas, painting in Torre Annunziata, Castellammare di Stabia, Procida, the Amalfi Coast, and Resina.

During the long trips to the open countryside, he distracted himself by playing the mandolin.

Many of his Amalfi landscapes were bought by the Goupil Gallery.

Two were displayed at the 1877 Exposition at Naples: Marina di Maiuri and Grotta degli Zingari.

At the Isle of Capri, he completed the following canvases sent to the 1880 Turin Exhibition: Marina of Naples; Pozzo; Zingara; Zingare; Cavalcavia; Monte Tiberio; Quiete (a half-figure of a woman); Giovinezza; Vecchiezza.

At Venice he painted the vedute: Cloister of San Gregorio; Via di Piccioni; Wooden House; San Barnaba; Ponte de' Turchetti; Al sole; Le lavoratrici di coralli; Blue House; Grand canal.

He moved to Paris, and after an excursion in England, returned to Naples even more prolific. Colnaghi, the art merchant of London, commissioned paintings for Stewart Gardner from the artist.

His painting Verona exhibited at 1911 exhibition of Barcelona was awarded a Silver medal.

The painter Francesco Raffaello Santoro was his cousin. | © Wikipedia

Santoro, Rubens - Pittore, nato a Montegrasso di Cosenza (ove suo padre faceva professione di scultore in legno) il 26 ottobre 1859. Ebbe per poco tempo insegnamenti morelliani nell'Istituto di belle arti a Napoli, e cominciò a esporre i suoi lavori nel 1874, durante il breve soggiorno napoletano di Mariano Fortuny.

Fu prevalentemente morelliano e fortuniano in qualche figuretta di donna, in qualche scena "di genere"; e, per amore di cose viste più che immaginate, ridusse l'orientalismo del Morelli, allora di gran moda, in visioni di accampamenti zingareschi.

Ma la paesistica, fin dal primo tempo, prevalse nella sua pittura.

Seppe sfuggire alla coreografia vedutistica della "scuola di Posillipo"; e, soprattutto nelle isole del golfo, andò scegliendo i suoi motivi in brevi recessi pittoreschi: architetture rusticane, svolte di strade campagnole, tratti di lido.

Tuttavia, più che il pittoresco napoletano, operò sulla sua immaginativa il pittoresco veneto.

Per la qualità stessa del suo intenso gusto coloristico e delle sue sottili ricerche luministiche, Venezia e Verona (dove egli fissò per molti anni la sua sede) offrirono i loro ponti, le loro vecchie case, le loro verdi acque, alla sua migliore e più ricca attività. | ©Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana