Pio Joris

Portrait of a Neapolitan or Roman commoner

Pio Joris
Rome 1843 - 1921

Oil on canvas, on its original canvas and in its gilded frame, on which the old brass plate with the painter's details is also present. Pio Joris (1843-1921), a Roman painter, watercolorist, and engraver; after his academic training at the Institute of Fine Arts of the Accademia di San Luca, he questioned his formative years following a trip to Florence in 1861, where, at the 1st National Exhibition of Fine Arts, he became infatuated with the verist novelties of the Neapolitans and Tuscans. Upon his return to Rome, he threw himself headlong into the study of reality and began to roam the Roman countryside, until in 1866 he became a pupil and friend of Achille Vertunni, the most famous landscape painter of the time in Rome. A trip to Naples with his master would introduce him personally to Morelli and Palizzi, as well as the other exponents of the Resina school, by whom he would be influenced: his works are marked by a rendering of reality resolved with the juxtaposition of touches of light (cf. La Terrazza, 1866, Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Rome). Subsequently, it was his friend Mariano Fortuny who influenced him, both in style (which became more virtuous and frayed) and in themes (antiquarian, Spanish-style themes...). At this point (the 1870s) his style was mature, a style characterized by the syncretism of genuine verism and pleasantness of touch, fluttering and lively. He won numerous awards at the Salons throughout Europe, in particular, Munich (1869), Vienna (1873), and Paris (1876).
In the 1870s he was in Paris where he was influenced by De Nittis and Impressionism. The 1880s were those of maturity and success, consecrated by the famous "The Flight of Pope Eugene IV" at the GNAM, exhibited at the first International Exhibition in Rome. The themes of his paintings are popular ones, with a touch of jolie, which so pleased the petty bourgeoisie. Between the 1890s and the early 1900s, he devoted himself to orientalist, mannered themes. He died in Rome in 1921.