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.
In 1884, at the age of 38, De Nittis died suddenly of a stroke at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. His wife, the Parisian Léontine Lucile Gruvelle (married in 1869) donated his paintings to the town of Barletta and they are now gathered in the Pinacoteca De Nittis in the Palace of the Marra in the hometown of the painter.
Works by De Nittis are in many public collections, including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, British Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
His paintings "Return from the Races" and "The Connoisseurs" are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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