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Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi

A Tuscan painter who resisted the currents of the post-Macchiaioli and the post-Impressionist styles. Born in Poggibonsi, Cecchi  (1882–1977) studied at the Scuola Libera del Nudo in Florence with Giovanni Fattori before moving to Rome in 1911, after her marriage to art critic and literary scholar Emilio Cecchi (1884–1966). The pair frequented Rome’s literary and artistic circles, entertaining such luminaries as Alberto Moravia, Giuseppe Ungaretti, and Mario Praz. Cecchi worked alongside Armando Spadini, a Florentine painter deeply interested in Impressionism who had also moved to Rome at the same time as the Cecchi family. After her participation in the Secessione Romana exhibition in 1916, Cecchi became a leading exponent of the Roman school. Known for her ability to produce works that defied strict classification, she successfully presented her luminous art in Italy, Europe and the United States. Although two of Cecchi’s oils, Ballerina and Morning on the Hudson River, are part of the Pitti Palace’s modern collection, the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieusseux houses 10 of her paintings, including portraits, still lifes and landscapes, as well as 21 watercolor drawings and 88 drawings in black pencil and ink, that make up the Fondo Emilio Cecchi, now part of the library’s Contemporary Archives. Leonetta Pieraccini Cecchi is a crucial protagonist of our 2018 edition of Women Artists of the 1900s.

(Text from: Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence by Jane Fortune).