Three Youth Portraits by Augusto Gardelli (Firlimpopoli, 1886 - 1968, Florence)

Three Youth Portraits by Augusto Gardelli

Brown pencil on paper

Dimensions: 27 x 19 cm; 16 x 20 cm (x2)
Signed and dated on one sheet: 12-9-1912

Augusto Gardelli (Forlimpopoli, 1886 – Florence, 1968)

Three portraits drawn in brown pencil, likely executed from life, depicting young sitters in profile or three-quarter views. The expressions are introspective, and the features are rendered with both delicacy and structural clarity. The line alternates between precise definition and softly modelled areas, conveying a thoughtful and measured observation.

The drawings come from a folder bearing the name of Augusto Gardelli, which also included watercolours and sketches made during the “Campo Luce 1912”. Although these portraits are not directly linked to that context, they are stylistically and chronologically consistent with Gardelli’s early graphic work, likely produced in either Italy or England between 1912 and 1918.

Condition: good; paper intact with minor signs of age.

Augusto Gardelli (1886–1968)

Born in Forlimpopoli, Gardelli moved to Florence in 1905 to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he trained within the Tuscan figurative tradition. After a formative stay in England in the early 1910s, he settled permanently in Florence, where he opened a studio in Via Masaccio. He participated in five editions of the Venice Biennale (1928–1940), the Rome Quadriennale in 1935, and was elected associate academician of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in 1952.

His works are held in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna at Palazzo Pitti, the Uffizi’s Department of Prints and Drawings, and in public collections in Pistoia. His production spans portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and wartime drawings, remaining consistently faithful to his academic training