(Milan 1852 - 1917)
A SKETCH OF THE CLOISTER OF VOLTORRE
Pen and brush with black ink. The full sheet 115 x 225 mm.
Luigi Conconi purchased in Voltorre, near Varese, a portion of a cloister, part of which was owned by the State.
The subject appears in a painting published by Giolli
See Raffaello Giolli, Luigi Conconi, Prospetto Biografico-Critico, Rome 1920, Tav. XXVIII.
It also appears in an etching in which Conconi mocks the behavior of the State, which after having refused his proposal to purchase and restore it, had allowed his part of the cloister to burn. See M. Bianchi, G. Ginex, Luigi Conconi incisore, Milan, 1994; cat. no. 57.
Conconi studied architecture at the Accademia di Brera and the Politecnico di Milano. He came into contact with members of the literary and artistic circles of the Scapigliatura – the Italian equivalent of the French Bohème– notably Tranquillo Cremona and Daniele Ranzoni, both of whom influenced his early paintings. In the 1880s Conconi moved from the Realism of Scapigliatura toward Symbolism. The awards he received in Paris in 1900 and Munich in 1913 led to his international recognition.
Conconi, who personally saw to the production of virtually all his plates, was the leading exponent in Lombardy of Acquaforte monotipata. This technique involved the artist drawing directly onto the ink covering the plate, prior to pulling the impression. In this way each resultant print has different characteristics.
