Anselmo Bucci
1887–1955 · Italian painter and printmaker linked to the Novecento Italiano
Anselmo Bucci (Fossombrone, 1887 – Monza, 1955) was an Italian painter and printmaker whose work moved from Symbolist painting with Fauvist overtones toward the order and discipline championed by the Novecento Italiano. His career traces the path from the Parisian avant-garde to the return to classical form in the interwar years.
Bucci attended the Brera Academy in Milan from 1904 to 1905. In 1906 he moved to Paris with Leonardo Dudreville. There he painted Symbolist works with strong Fauvist accents, made his debut at the Salon des Arts Décoratifs in 1907, and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants from 1910 onwards.
During the First World War he enlisted in the Volunteer Cyclist Battalion in 1915, and his first solo show, at the Famiglia Artistica in Milan, took place while he was on leave. After the war he drew close to the Novecento Italiano's return to order and took part in the Venice Biennale in 1920 and 1924; on the latter occasion one of his works was bought for the city's modern art gallery. He was a founding member of the "Sette pittori del Novecento Italiano" and showed with the group in 1926, though not at its second exhibition.
In the 1930s, dividing his time between Milan and Paris, his painting shed its Neoclassical rigidity in favour of greater freedom. In 1938 he produced the fresco Italian Civilization Putting an End to Slavery for the Palazzo di Giustizia in Milan. Works such as Tending the Horses (1916), The Sisters from Brianza (1932) and Monza (1951) show this shift toward a more personal language.
Works (3)
Oil on canvas from 1916 by Anselmo Bucci, in a horizontal format. The title suggests a scene of caring for horses, which form the central subject. No information is available about its commission or compositional details, so the description can only address the general theme and this text stays within what is documented.
Portrait of the Sisters from Brianza, painted by Anselmo Bucci in 1932 in oil on panel. The work belongs to the collections of the Fondazione Cariplo. Known details do not clarify its commission, composition, or the circumstances of its making, so it is best approached as a visual record of its period, read with caution.
This 1951 work by Anselmo Bucci is a landscape of Monza, according to its title. It was made on paper using tempera and charcoal, a combination that suggests a drawing enriched with paint. Its wide horizontal format gives the view considerable width. The work is held in the art collections of Fondazione Cariplo.
Where to see the work
- Art collections of Fondazione Cariplo Milan · 3