Giorgio Morandi

Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) is generally considered the greatest painter of still lifes the 20th century. An artist of geometry and tonal intimatism, a few everyday objects formed his intensely contemplative and lyrical ‘personal alphabet’.

He belonged to no movement or school but his own, but was as timeless and contemplative as the painters who inspired him: Giotto, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Chardin, and probably most of all, Cézanne, who scrutinized the world just as closely.

Morandi's own life was a still life. For most of it he lived with his three sisters in the same house in his native Bologna (now open to visits by appointment). If they left, it was usually to spend the summer in the Apennine coolness of a modest cottage in Grizzana. Some have found echoes of Bologna itself in his art—in his austere colours, in his tower-like bottles.