Serge Belloni (1925-2005) – Vue de la Chiesetta dell’Abbazia della Misericordia huile sur carton vers 1990
Serge Belloni, nicknamed "The Painter of Paris", devoted his life as a painter to retranscribing day after day, in all weathers, the face of Paris and he devoted another part of his life to Venice, showing another face of the Serenissima.
The second focus of his activity was Venice, where he spent several months each year in total solitude, which he considered essential for creative work. His tastes led him to Venice Minor, the oldest part of the city, where he rediscovered the boldness and strength of the first builders who gave the city its soul.
This lovely painting shows a delightful view of the Chiesetta dell'Abbazia della Misericordia, the soothing colour palette an invitation to travel and daydream.
Elegant and decorative oil on board signed lower left Serge Belloni circa 1990.
Sizes unframed: H 8.07 In. - W 10.03 In.
Sizes framed: H 14.17 In. - W 16.14 In.
In excellent condition, we are showing this painting in its original state, with a charming gilded wooden frame.
Biography:
Serge Belloni (1925-2005), known as the Painter of Paris, was born in Piacenza, Italy, on February 25, 1925, and died in Menton on October 28, 2005.
He was the son of upholsterer Luigi Belloni and Elvira Belloni born Molinari.
He arrived in Paris in 1933, where he studied painting at the renowned Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
In 1946, at the age of 21, he organized his first exhibition in Paris. From then on, he lived solely and uncompromisingly from his painting, carrying, as he likes to say, his cross every day. He works every day, in every season, without ever stopping, as if life were slipping away from him at every moment. He works in all weathers. He paints "from the motif".
Numerous trips to Holland enabled him to study the secrets of the Flemish masters.
He worked on rediscovering ancient techniques, which he continued to perfect. His technique is egg painting.
Museums:
Les toiles de Serge Belloni figurent dans les plus importantes collections : Paris, Milan, Moscou, New-York…
First prize of painting in Versailles (1949), Marie Bashkirtseff prize (1952), Silver Medal of the City of Paris, Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris (1980).
Musée Carnavalet à Paris ou plusieurs de ces œuvres sont conservées.
Museum CA' Pesaro in Venice.
Giorgio Gamberini - Italian journalist :
My first encounter with Serge Belloni was in the early 1950s. A friend we had in common, director of the newspaper in Plaisance (the town where Belloni was born), had asked me to get in touch with him. At the time, the artist was preparing an exhibition dedicated to Paris and Venice: the third that he presented to a particularly demanding public, that of his adopted city. I therefore had to meet him, see his latest works and say or rather write if, in my opinion, they fulfilled the promises of the young painter to whom two illustrious poets and a few enlightened amateurs had predicted, a few years earlier, a brilliant future.
The interview began in a restaurant on the Île Saint-Louis and continued in the small workshop at 25, quai d'Anjou (since abandoned by Belloni for the less bohemian but more comfortable one at 27, quai de Bourbon).
I was won over from the first moment. First of all by the man passionately loving all that is beautiful, the generous idealist sensitive to all the sufferings of the world; then, having seen his paintings, by the artist.
At Belloni, the man and the artist are one and the same. In meetings with friends as in all social evenings, in the privacy of his studio as in the streets where he paints in all weathers, during the rare leisure time he allows himself as in full creation, Serge remains equal to itself. If I had to define him in a few words, I would say: he lives his painting as he lives his life, with courage and simplicity; he is his painting.
He is his painting and his work is a whole. Whether it's his lively still lifes, his moving portraits, his bouquets of rare luminosity, or the admirable landscapes of Paris and elsewhere.
He is called "the painter of Paris". We could also call him the painter of the five seasons, the fifth being that of the heart, of poetry in its purest form, of the feelings expressed by the sumptuous arc of his palette.
Many of my colleagues have written in recent years that Serge Belloni does not contribute to any chapel, and does not belong to any school except that of a job well done. That's right.
For my part, I would add that since the day I met him for the first time, his goal has remained the same: to strive tirelessly and with all his might toward an ideal of perfection.
