Enrico Pestellini
1838–1916 · Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Kingdom of Italy · Portrait painting, Naturalism
The story
Enrico Pestellini kept a studio in via Panicale in Florence, next to the sculptor Odoardo Fantacchiotti, and he was a friend of the Macchiaioli, the Tuscan painters who built their pictures out of patches of tone taken straight from life. Where he trained is not recorded.
He worked mainly as a portraitist, and what he sent to exhibitions was domestic. A straw-plaiter studied from life went to Florence in 1882 and an autumn subject to Rome the year after, and in 1887 he showed The Elder Sister at the national exhibition in Venice. That is the picture the Galleria d'arte moderna in Palazzo Pitti holds. The Florentine academy elected him an honorary professor on 27 December 1885.
