Milan, 10 May. The book “At the table with De Nittis Italien, peintre, gourmet (and his friends)” by the journalist and writer Nino Vinella, from Barletta like the famous artist, was presented in Milan as a national preview, in the conference held in Palazzo Reale as an event related to the exhibition ” De Nittis painter of modern life” running with public success until June 30th.
Introduced by Domenico Piraina, culture director of the Municipality of Milan and Palazzo Reale, the meeting was greeted by the interventions of the president of the Apulian Regional Association of Milan, Camillo de Milato, of the president of the Council Commission for Culture of the Municipality of Barletta, Ruggiero Fiorella , and of the trustee for Lombardy of the Italian Committee for Canne della Battaglia ODV, Antonio Luzzio.
The moderator was the scholar of popular traditions Giuseppe Selvaggi, the presentation of the original Denittisian theme by the author Nino Vinella (with the narrative voice of Edilberto Giannini and the theatrical incursions in nineteenth-century clothes by the actors Alessandro Tacconi and Maria Carolina Nardino) addressed to an attentive and crowded audience of participants.
Brushstrokes of artistic life, gastronomic digressions, atmospheres and suggestions between Italy, France and England in the mid and late nineteenth century. This is how the figure of De Nittis and his wife Leontine was told through the works of the famous artist and of those Saturday evenings that took place in their home in Paris, appreciated by all for the informal atmosphere, the liveliness of the conversation, the good music and truly delicious food, cooked by the host.
In addition to lifelong friends, such as the two Goncourt brothers, Desboutin, Daudet, Manet, Degas, Caillebotte, Claretie, characters such as Oscar Wilde, Zola, Dumas son, Burty, Forain, Legros, Stevens, Tissot, the Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, Gustave Doré, Huysmans, Leconte de Lisle, Maupassant.
And then, of course, the Italians passing through Paris. Among all, Diego Martelli, the great critic and supporter of the Macchiaioli and passionate about the Impressionists, who left us an extraordinary description of that “house of a true Parisian, of those Parisians who are perhaps baptized in Barletta, but who are legitimate”.
To this testimony must be added others, such as the enthusiastic one of Edmond de Goncourt who, in his famous Journal, a memorable chronicle of those extraordinary years, gave us every moment of those “truly enchanting” dinners, among the sparkling of the Japanese foukousas, “which they are like very bright and very cheerful spots on the walls” and the scent of the “large plate of macaroni” that “he cooks himself, in his Neapolitan guise.
De Nittis, since his beginnings in Naples and during his experience at the Resina School, dedicated himself to painting en plein air, practiced directly outdoors rather than in the studio. This practice, born in the mid-nineteenth century, represents a challenge to traditional academic education based on classroom lessons, with copying of models and studio work.
In Paris, De Nittis formed relationships with artists such as Manet, Caillebotte and above all Degas, with whom he established a deep friendship based on mutual esteem and admiration. It was Degas himself who invited him to participate in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874, at the studio of the photographer Nadar, where De Nittis presented five works, mainly examples of plein air painting, including two views of Vesuvius.
Open air painting represents the meeting point between De Nittis and Impressionism. The palette lights up with vivid tones, the brushstroke becomes freer and less detailed, the volumes are built not through chiaroscuro, but through chromatic contrast. The compositions open up and acquire airiness; the intense backlight effects, transparencies and colored shadows show the continuous research on light.
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