Alberto Pisa

Alberto Pisa (Ferrara, 1864 – 1930) was an Italian painter best known for his ruins, landscapes and garden views rendered in bright watercolour. He first trained in his native Ferrara with Gaetano Domenichini and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where he had the chance to become acquainted with the Macchiaioli group. His first exhibited work was a Church Interior shown at the Promotrice. In 1887 he sent views of Santa Maria Novella and the genre painting Donne e Madonne to the Venice Exposition, and in the following years he showed works in Bologna and at the Florence Promotrice, including the oil Le lavandaie and the pastel Il fiammiferaio. He also painted portraits in Ferrara, produced illustrations for books and journals, and made watercolour vedute of Rome, Pompeii and Florence. His wider reputation rests largely on illustrated travel books in colour and on editions of novels such as The Last Days of Pompeii. Two of his English views, Westminster Bridge and Hampstead Heath, are held by British museums. Accounts differ on the year of his death, giving either 1930 or 1936.