FRANCESCO TROMBADORI
Siracusa, 1886 - Rome, 1961

Cherry blossoms
Oil on canvas, 31 x 25,5 cm
Signed lower left: F. Trombadori

Photo-certificate by Donatella Trombadori, Rome, 2011

LITERATURE AND EXHIBITED: “I Maestri della Scuola Romana”,curated by A. Statuti, Firenze, 2014, p. 84.

BIOGRAPHY: Father Antonino is a bookseller, engraver and modeler of crib puppets. During his youth, Francesco attended the technical school. In 1907 he moved to Rome where he attended the courses of the Academy of Fine Arts and the free school of the nude. Among the teachers there is Giuseppe Cellini, among the classmates we find Cipriano Efisio Oppo, Amerigo Bartoli, Mario Broglio, Virgilio Guidi. In 1911 he held his first solo show, in the Foyer of the Teatro Massimo in Syracuse. In 1913 he began to frequent the studio of Enrico Lionne (1875-1921) confirming his tendency towards pointillist painting, which was very popular in Rome at the time. In 1915 he left for the war: in August 1916 he was wounded on Podgora in the action for the capture of Gorizia. At the end of the conflict, Trombadori is back in Rome. He assiduously attends the Third Room of the Aragno Coffee. He is also in contact with Bragaglia's environment, as evidenced by a series of photodynamic portraits and his presence in the Index. The relationship of esteem will continue even when the artist enters his "neoclassical" phase. Since 1920 he has lived in Villa Strohl-fern. In 1921 he was appointed professor of drawing at the Technical Institute of Civitavecchia. He participates in the 1st Roman Biennale. He also works as an illustrator, for Henry Barbusse's short story book "The Man and the Woman". In 1922, at the "Amatori e Cultori" he presented "Siracusa mia!", Which can be considered as the point of arrival of his pointillist period. In the early 1920s, Trombadori devoted a lot of time to the study of ancient painting, looking for a personal path in the difficult relationship between avant-garde and tradition. The Second Roman Biennale, in 1923, is an opportunity to compare his work with that of other "fellow travelers", from Antonio Donghi to Carlo Socrate to Nino Bertoletti, with whom he exhibits in a "neoclassical" intonation room and purist. .
In 1924 he exhibited at the Venice Biennale and at the Exhibition of twenty Italian artists at the Pesaro gallery in Milan. At the Third Roman Biennale in 1925 he exhibited in the same room as de Chirico (an artist to whom he is linked by a relationship of mutual esteem and friendship) by Antonio Donghi, Francesco Di Cocco and Filippo De Pisis. Also in 1925 he began his career as an art critic, publishing in "L'Epoca" two writings dedicated to Fattori and the death of Spadini and in "L'Opviso" a text on the Italian artistic situation. Since the spring of 1925, Trombadori has been in contact with Margherita Sarfatti and with the organizing committee of the "Novecento Italiano", who, in addition to inviting him as an artist, commissioned him to encourage the participation of other exponents of the Roman environment, from Bandinelli to De Chirico to Bartoli to Donghi. In February 1926 the first exhibition of the Italian twentieth century was inaugurated at Palazzo della Permanente in Milan, in which he participated with three works. Even more interesting for the Roman aspects of the "twentieth century" is the exhibition of the "Ten artists of the Italian twentieth century" which is presented by Margherita Sarfatti as part of the XCIII Fine Arts Exhibition of the Società Amatori e Cultori. The nucleus is represented by Virgilio Guidi and Carlo Socrate, Gisberto Ceracchini, Riccardo Francalancia, Trombadori presents four canvases (two landscapes and two still lifes). In his painting a new interest in the landscape begins to appear, frequently exhibited in national and international exhibitions.
In 1931 he participated with three works at the First Quadrennial, also publishing various reviews in "Gente nostra", useful for understanding his preferences on the Italian scene. We recall that in 1930 Trombadori also carefully reviewed the exhibition of two young "expressionists": Mafai and Scipione. He continues his participation in the exhibitions of the Italian twentieth century, which in this period are mainly held abroad (Buenos Aires 1930, Stockholm 1931, Oslo 1932). In 1931 he participated with a painting in the Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Painting in the Baltimore museum (USA). A small solo exhibition is welcomed by the 1932 Venice Biennale. Among other exhibitions from the 1930s we can mention the various editions of the Venice Biennale, the Rome Quadriennale, and the Trade Unions, in which he always participates with small groups of works.
In 1938 the first monograph of him appears for the editions of "Circoli", forty works introduced by a text by Adriano Grande. His collaboration in "Circoli" is very intense and qualitatively high, with articles ranging from book reviews to seventeenth-century painting. At the beginning of the 1940s there is a rather curious moment to report, represented by the paintings painted for the aeronautics salon at the Venice Biennale in 1942 and then also exhibited at the Aeronautical Art Exhibition of the Rome Gallery (1943). An escape from the usual repertoire but perhaps also a sign of the difficulties of work in the war period. The last period of the war is particularly hard: in April 1944 was arrested by the Koch gang which operated in Rome in the service of the Germans and the Fascists. He is confined to the Jaccarino pension to get news of his son Antonello wanted by the SS.
After the war, a new pictorial period begins, dedicated to an original and refined reading of the Roman landscape in a neo-metaphysical key. Among the exhibitions we can remember the personal exhibitions at the Galleria del Pincio (Rome 1951) at the "Tartaruga" (Rome 1955) at the Centro San Babila (Milan 1960) at the Galleria Russo (Rome 1961). From 1950 onwards he frequently returned to Sicily.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Trombadori", exhibition catalog edited by M. Fagiolo dell’Arco, V. Rivosecchi, Rome, 1986;
V. Rivosecchi, Trombadori, in "Nine masters of the Roman school", Turin 1992;
General catalog of the Municipal Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, edited by G. Bonasegale, Rome 1995;
"Venice and the Biennale. The paths of taste", curated by F. Scotton, Venice 1995.

Excellent condition
Frame, glass, passepartout