Roger de Montebello. Ritratti di Venezia e altri ritratti

Roger de Montebello is a Franco-American painter who was born in Paris and raised in a family of art lovers. After specialising in painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Seville, Spain, he went on to graduate in art history from Harvard University. In 1992 he moved to Venice, where he opened his own studio. His work could be defined as “borderline”, at the divide between abstraction and representation, and always guided by an aesthetic of light employed with great efficacy. The effects of this hover between thought and feeling, enabling him to adopt an almost metaphysical approach to exploring details of objects or people, doors on water, trees, faces, or architecture along Venice’s canals, with the images mirrored in the water. René Huyghe, former curator of the Louvre department of paintings, wrote of Montebello’s work: “Light, colour and three-dimensional form demarcate the talent of painters. Roger de Montebello’s knows how to link them together in equal degree in his work, and because of this it is endowed with an exceptional richness”.

Scientific direction : Gabriella Belli

Curated by Jean Clair