Vittorio Reggianini specialized in genre subjects including elegant scenes of bourgeois life, figure compositions particularly women's heads and child studies as well as more humble interiors with peasants. Reggianini combined fantasy with reality, sensuality with sensibility and above all, like many of the Florentine historical genre painters furnished his costume pieces in luxury.
Reggianini was born in Modena, north Italy, in 1853. He studied at the Modena Academy of Fine Arts where he later became a professor. Like many of his contemporaries, Reggianini migrated south, to Florence, where in 1900 he participated in the Alinari Corcorso with a painting entitled Tristis Matris Nati Presaga Finis.
Reggianini also exhibited with the Florentine Art Association in 1907 - 08 and again at the exhibition of 1910 - 11. He was affiliated with the Florentine genre painters such as Federico Andreotti (1847-1930) and Francesco Vinea (1845-1902) painting similar subjects, using similar props, at times sharing the same model and like them inscribed a number of his works, "Firenze".
Like his Florentine contemporaries, Reggianini executed a variety of costume pieces of the bourgeoisie enjoying the arts. His pictures often include many incidental details. Similar scenes are portrayed by Andreotti or Joseph Frederic Charles Soulacroix.
The work of Vittorio Reggianini is represented in the Mainz Museum, West Germany.
Source: askart.com
