Visconti, Eliseu d'Angelo (1866–1944)

Eliseu d'Angelo Visconti (b. 1866; d. 1944) Brazilian painter. Born in Italy, Visconti came to Brazil as an infant with his family. Although he studied music during his youth, he chose painting over the violin. He took his first art classes at the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios (School of Arts and Crafts) in Rio de Janeiro. Then in 1885 he enrolled in Brazil's Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, where his talents were quickly recognized. During the first artistic competition of the republic, Visconti won a travel award that allowed him to study in Europe. While there, he won prizes and recognition as a student at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and took classes at the School Guérin, where he studied decorative art under the tutelage of Eugène Grasset.

He returned to Brazil in 1897 and by 1901 had his first individual exhibition, showing eighty-eight works. In 1905, while in Paris, he received a governmental commission from Brazil, the first of many, to execute a panel painting destined for the entrance of the Municipal Theater in Rio de Janeiro. For the foyer, ceiling, and proscenium of the theater, he also did paintings celebrating the arts through allegorical themes.

In 1946 Brazil's National Museum of Fine Arts organized a retrospective of his works that included 285 oil paintings as well as watercolors, drawings, and decorative pieces. Visconti's work is stylistically eclectic with influences drawn from impressionism and realism. He once referred to himself as a "presentist" who produces an art that is constantly changing and modifying.

See alsoArt: The Twentieth Century .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arte no Brasil, vol. 2 (1979), pp. 578-587.

Additional Bibliography

Cavalcanti, Ana Maria Tavares. "Entre a alegoria e o deleite visual: as pinturas decorativas de Eliseu Visconti para o theatro municipal do Rio de Janeiro." Arte & Ensaio 9, no. 9 (2002): 46-57.

Morai, Frederico. "Eliseu Visconti e a crítica de arte no Brasil." In Aspectos da arte brasileira, Wladimir Alves de Souza, editor. Rio de Janeiro: Edição FUNARTE, 1980.

                                            Caren A. Meghreblian