In the Manner of Giorgio Morandi (1890 - 1964) Italy. Watercolor on Board. Measure 19"in H x 25 1/2"in W and 22"in H x 28 1/2"in W with frame. Giorgio Morandi was born in Bologna to Andrea Morandi and Maria Maccaferri. He lived first on Via Lame where his brother Giuseppe (who died in 1903) and his sister Anna were born. The family then moved to Via Avesella where his two other sisters were born, Dina in 1900 and Maria Teresa in 1906. From 1907 to 1913 he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna [Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna]. After the death of his father in 1909, the family moved to Via Fondazza and Morandi became the head of the family. At the Accademia, which based its traditions on 14th-century painting, Morandi taught himself to etch by studying books on Rembrandt. He was excellent at his studies, although his professors disapproved of the changes in his style during his final two years at the Accademia. Even though he lived his whole life in Bologna, Morandi was influenced by the works of Cezanne, Derain, and Picasso. In 1910 he visited Florence, where the works of artists such as Giotto, Masaccio, Piero Della Francesca, and Paolo Uccello made a profound impression on him. He had a brief digression into a Futurist style in 1914. In that same year, Morandi was appointed instructor of drawing for elementary schools in Bologna — a post he held until 1929. In 1929 Giorgio Morandi illustrated the work Il sole a picco by Vincenzo Cardarelli , winner of the Bagutta Award. From 1930 to 1956, Morandi was a professor of etching at Accademia di Belle Arti. The 1948 Venice Biennale awarded him first prize for painting. He visited Paris for the first time in 1956, and in 1957 he won the grand prize in Sao Paulo's Biennial. Quiet and polite, both in his private and public life, Morandi was much talked about in Bologna for his enigmatic yet very optimistic personality. Morandi lived on Via Fondazza, in Bologna, with his three sisters Anna, Dina and Maria Teresa. Morandi died of lung cancer on June 18, 1964.