Enrico Cavalli (1849 – 1919)
Between the France of Monticelli and the Vigezzo Valley of Fornara and Ciolina

curated by Lorella Giudici and Elisabetta Staudacher
Rossetti Valentini School of Fine Arts
Santa Maria Maggiore (VCO)
Inauguration on June 24th 2023, h. 17:00

Open every day from 25 June – 26 November
25/06 to 10/09 2023, from 10-13 and 15,30-18,30. Closed on Mondays.
16/09 to 26/11 open only on Saturdays and Sundays, from 10-13 and 16-18.
Admission – voluntary donation.

On the occasion of the reopening of the renovated and expanded “Rossetti Valentini” School of Fine Arts – the only School of Fine Arts still operating in the Italian Alps – the exhibition, “Enrico Cavalli (1849-1919) Between the France of Monticelli and the Vigezzo Valley of Fornara and Ciolina”, organised by the Rossetti Valentini School of Fine Arts Foundation and in collaboration with the Municipality of Santa Maria Maggiore, aims to comprehensively explore, for the first time, the art, teachings and the person who best represents the school, Enrico Cavalli. The exhibition highlights Enrico Cavalli’s ties with the France of François-Auguste Ravier and Adolphe Monticelli (a painter who was much admired by Van Gogh and Cézanne, and who will be represented in the show with five important oil paintings), and whose teachings on light and colour were crucial to Cavalli’s training and the modern imprint they gave to his painting and that of his pupils. It also highlights his Vigezzo roots, his two important successors, Carlo Fornara and Giovanni Battista Ciolina, and how he transformed that small mountain town into the famous “Valley of the Painters.”.

The exhibition is supported by the Fondazione Compagnia San Paolo, InterregPAES.CH.IT 100 (with contributions from SSIF Società Subalpina di Imprese Ferroviarie, Unione Montana Valle Vigezzo and Fondazione Intra), Fondazione Comunitaria del VCO Ente Filantropico, Museo dell’Emigrazione Vigezzina nel Mondoand Distretto Turistico dei Laghi, Monti e Valli d’Ossola.
The exhibition, “Enrico Cavalli (1849-1919) Between the France of Monticelli and the Vigezzo Valley of Fornara and Ciolina” is a part of the “Vigezzo Valley. The valley of the painters”” project and is carried out with the support of the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo as part of the project “Luce – Valorizzare e raccontare le identità culturali dei territori” (Light – Enhancing and narrating the cultural identities of the areas) and the Missione Creare attrattività dell’Obiettivo Cultura, which aims to enhance the culture and creativity of the Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d’Aosta regions by making them more accessible and attractive to the people who live there and to tourists, from a sustainable social and economic development point of view.

Pictured: