Venice. The Grand Canal with gondolas. Signed Casali Renzo(Livorno 1898 - 1977).

Venice. The Grand Canal with gondolas.

Signed Casali Renzo(Livorno 1898 - 1977).

Dated 1948 on the back. Tuscan painter, who mainly painted Tuscan landscapes.

This small oil painting on wooden tablet is a rare subject for the painter.
The date, 1948, could be connected to the visit to Venice for the first Venice Biennale after the war, an event of enormous importance, which could have attracted the painter to the lagoon city.

Even if the geographical area changes, the way of painting remains the same: broad brushstrokes, between impressionism and the revisiting of the impressionist language in a Tuscan key of the Macchiaioli and post Macchiaioli schools.

After attending the Nautical Technical Institute of Livorno, he joined the Luigi Orlando Shipyard as a technical draftsman. His drawing leads him to approach painting. He loved to depict the Livorno countryside, farmhouses, haystacks and hunting scenes.

His paintings are characterized by thick brushstrokes with bright colors ranging from strong greens to incisive yellows, as if to represent the force of nature. He soon left the shipyard to devote himself entirely to art, establishing his studio on the
Waterfront in Livorno.

Thus he began to have contacts with other painters and merchants of the time. He became a member of the Labronico Group and on 25 August 1953, together with Mario Borgiotti and Nedo Luschi, they founded the 'Premio Rotonda' extemporaneously, an event that brought together all the Labronico painters.

Casali participated in the following years in numerous national reviews with several personal exhibitions in various cities of Italy. Some of his paintings are found in private collections in Livorno and in other cities.

He was one of the founders of the "Rotonda" award who chose the Rotonda di Ardenza in Livorno as the setting, together with Borgiotti, creator of the event. Right there, in the adjacent pine forest, important Livorno painters painted: Giovanni Fattori, Amedeo Modigliani and Ulvi Liegi.

Renzo Casali dedicated many of his days to the 'Rotonda', also facing difficult, stormy periods.

He loved to work on the real: he penetrated the Tuscan countryside and with the simplest subjects he conversed almost daily; he was also attracted by the Tyrrhenian coast.

He obtained esteem and friendship from older colleagues who welcomed him into their nucleus and was then invited to join the Labronico Group (Post-Macchiaioli of Livorno). Mario Borgiotti, Gino Romiti, Giovanni March, Renato Natali and others spurred and encouraged him and with many of them he exhibited in regional and national exhibitions obtaining numerous awards.