RICCARDO FRANCALANCIAAssisi, 1886 - Rome, 1965 Santa Chiara at Assisi, 1932 Oil on board, 40,5 x 44 cm Signed, titled and dated lower right: R. Francalancia, Santa Chiara, Assisi, 1932BIOGRAPHY: Born in Assisi on 9 November 1886 by Emma Tini, from a noble family, and by Gustavo, a rich landowner. In his youth he completed classical studies and graduated in political and colonial sciences at the University of Rome.After 1913 he lives in Rome, he works at the Credito Italiano and begins to make contact with the artistic and cultural environment of the capital, attending the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia and the "third room" of the Caffè Aragno. The passion for painting manifests itself around 1919. The first timid landscapes and many drawings are from this date, often linked to a fantastic and surreal vein, close to that of her friend Edita Zur-Muehlen Broglio, painter and animator of "Valori Models ".In 1921 Mario Broglio offered him the opportunity to exhibit in the exhibition Das junge Italien which between the spring and winter of that year was hosted in various German cities. From the papers of the "Archivio di Valori Plastici" it appears that some paintings by Francalancia become part of the "picture gallery" that Broglio sets up for commercial purposes together with Mario Girardon, financier of the magazine. In 1922 Mario Broglio again supported the friend presenting a group of his works exhibited at the "Fiorentina Primavera" together with the others of the group of "Valori Plastici". During this period Francalancia abandoned his employment in a bank to devote himself entirely to painting. During the 1920s he exhibited at the Roman Biennale (1925) and at various "Novecento Italiano" exhibitions. His first solo show was held in 1928, at the "Stanze del libro" in Piazza Rondanini. Thirty-three works on display, from the landscapes of Umbria and Lazio, to still lifes, to interiors. Propitiator of the exhibition is the collector Angelo Signorelli, also author of a presentation in the catalog. Within a few days almost all the paintings are sold, among the buyers we find Alfredo Casella who wins two landscapes and the melancholy interior. Also noteworthy is the attention of critics. Francalancia now has a recognized place in the Roman art scene, when in 1929 he exhibited at the first trade union exhibition he was welcomed by Roberto Longhi with the nickname "the Poor Clare of the Banco di Roma", to remember his working past and his tendency to contemplative painting , yet some of his paintings (for example the Portrait of Sergiacomi) reveal strange similarities even with the more expressionist side of the "Roman School", so much so that at the Second Trade Union (1930) we find them in the same room as those of Mafai and Scipione. The participation in the Quadriennale (1931), at the Venice Biennale in 1932, the victory in the same year of the prize for Sacred Art in Padua, marked a moment of good success. His name is now regularly placed side by side with those of Trombadori and Donghi within the research of "magic realism", even if by now the fortune of this type of painting begins to decline. Even a fine critic like Alberto Francini, reviewing the Biennale of '32, prefers to use the derogatory definition of "domesticated metaphysics." Between 1933 and '34 Francalancia suffers from a nervous disease that forces him to very harsh clinical work. In 1935 we find him with three paintings at the II Roman Quadrennial. He resumes painting intensely, working on the usual themes: Umbrian and Lazio landscapes, still life, the Roman view. In the following years the most important exhibitions were held in Rome at the Galleria delle Terme (1942) at the "Palma" (1951) at the "Tartaruga" (1956), at the "Nuova Pesa" (1964). After the war he continues to be appreciated above all as a landscape painter, obtaining some acknowledgments in this field (Villa S.Giovanni 1957, Acitrezza 1961). the hundreds of sheets that for years he has filled with notes, aphorisms, thoughts: "The work of art must not make the spirit of the observer be perplexed and surprised, as in the face of something exceptional and incomprehensible, but it must arouse a serene feeling of emotion as deep and intrusive the more the emotion that the artist feels in front of nature is expressed ./.../ ". He died in Rome on May 20, 1965.BIBLIOGRAPHY: V.Guzzi, Riccardo Francalacia, Ed Bora-Esse Arte, Bologna-Rome 1978;Catalog of the Francalancia exhibition, edited by V. Rivosecchi, Rome National Academy of San Luca 18 December 1986-17 January 1987, Ed. De Luca, Rome 1986. Very good conditionFrame, without glass