Giorgio De Chirico was born in 1888, in Volo, the main city of Thessaly. His father was an engineer in charge of constructing the Palermitan railway line. His mother, Gemma, was a Genoese noblewoman. In 1891, his brother, Andrea, was born (he would later take on the pseudonym of Alberto Savinio for his work as a musician, writer and painter).
In 1900, he enrolled at Athens’ Polytechnic, where he attended lessons for two years on drawing and painting. Right from being a child, he showed a prominent preference for painting, copying pictures from various publications. He received his first private tuition from the Greek painter, Mavrudis.
Unfortunately, his father died in 1905 and so, he returned with his family to Italy and subsequently, moved to Monaco of Bavaria.
Between 1905 and 1909, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Monaco and was influenced by German culture, art, literature and philosophy. He read Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, met and studied the art of Arnold Bocklin and Max Klinger, who he wrote acute critical essays about afterwards.
He arrived in Milan in 1909, where he painted strong bockliniana-inspired pictures often, gripped by critical moments of dark melancholy. In 1910, he moved with his mother to Florence and began to paint subjects, trying to translate that mysterious and powerful feeling found in Nietzsche’s books: the melancholy of beautiful autumn days, afternoons in Italian cities, all of which were the prelude to the successive “Piazze d’Italia”.
In 1911, he and his mother reached his brother in Paris (stopping over in Turin, where he was deeply influenced by the city’s architecture).
He exhibited his first three works at the Salon d’Automne in 1912 and became acquainted to P. Valéry and G. Apollinaire. However, he was still alien to Cubism and avant-garde experience in general. He was in search of his own language, painting various subjects, with dream vision as a common base.
In 1913, he exhibited three works at the Salon des Indipendants and then four more at the Salon d’Automne. A year later, he attended the literary and artistic scene of the Ecole de Paris together with his brother who was a much appreciated musician- as Apollinaire and Soffici wrote about him at the time. It was during those years that De Chirico invented and developed mysterious poetic magic themes of extraordinary imagination: architectural visions, Italian city squares, solitary statues, objects absurdly approached by disturbing suggestion and mannequins.
He was recalled to Italy for the beginning of the war in 1915, but was declared invalid and was therefore, able to continue painting.
The impression produced by Ferrara’s urban environment and architecture proved to be essential to the development of his vision as he began, between 1916 and 1917, to paint such works as “The restless muses”, “Hector and Andromache” and ” The finder “. The influence of his poetic world is crucial to the work of Carlo Carra, his military hospital companion he met in the spring of 1917. He also took part in frequent artistic discussions with Filippo De Pisis.
He moved to Rome in 1918, where he painted two self-portraits as well as a portrait of his mother. He attended the museums of ancient art, making copies, and experienced a major revelation whilst in front of a painting by Tiziano. He collaborated on the journal “Plastic Values” and was in the company of writers and artists from the magazine “La Ronda”. Both his paintings as well as his writings of great interest were published.
Between 1920 and 1924, he alternated his stays between in Rome and Florence. In his paintings, an original interpretation of classical and romantic interest for the great technique of the old Renaissance masters was more than ever present. The Russian painter, Locoff, started him off to the secrets of tempera grassa paint and he went on to paint the series of Roman Villas, the Prodigal Son and the Argonauts. He participated in various important exhibitions. In 1925, he returned to Paris and his new painting was attacked by Surrealists. In 1926, he exhibited at the Guillaume gallery, where an American collector would buy many of his works.
In 1927, he painted on the themes of Archaeologists, Horses on the beach, Gladiators as well as Mysterious Baths, and in 1928, he held a solo exhibition in London. De Chirico’s art is recognized by the highest Dadaists and Surrealists (Ernst, Magritte and Dali- to name a few) as the source of their research and creations. Many German artists have been heavily influenced by him as well.
In 1927, “Hebdomeros, le peintre et son genie chez l’èerivain”, the book, was published and in 1930, he participated in many international exhibitions where he met Isabella Far.
The following years were marked by a series of exhibitions, both in Italy as well as Europe and the United States. He lived in Paris, New York and Milan until he came to Rome, where he resided for the last years of his life. He died in 1978.
