Pietro Fragiacomo

1856 – 1922

Italian painter. Born at Pirano d'Istria near Trieste, Fragiacomo moved with his family to Venice, where he trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1878. Under the influence of Bresolin and Favretto, Fragiacomo devoted his talent to landscape painting from life, often in the company of his friend, the painter Giacomo Favretto. In his luminous marine views, and in his cityscapes, the influence of the Macchiaioli is mellowed by a lighter touch, with a more somber palette, based on grays and steely blues, that evokes the great Venetian painters, especially Guardi. In his later works, Fragiacomo's crepuscular tones are mitigated by a use of symbolism that borders on floral taste. He won a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889 in Paris and took part in the Munich International Exhibition of the same year. He won the Prince Umberto Prize at the Milan Triennale of 1891 and was a regular participant from 1895 to 1922 at the Venice Biennale, which held a solo show of his work in 1910 and a posthumous retrospective in 1924.

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