Giorgio de Chirico

Key facts

Lived

1888–1978, Italian

Movement

• Modernism

Works held in

52 museums

Plan your visit to see Giorgio de Chirico →

• Giorgio de chirico art movement?+

  Giorgio de Chirico was a leader of the Metaphysical Painting movement. His metaphysical paintings influenced the entire Surrealist movement.
• Is giorgio de chirico a surrealist?+

  Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical paintings influenced the entire Surrealist movement. Breton, Magritte, Dali, and Ernst all acknowledged the debt.
• What is giorgio de chirico known for?+

  Giorgio de Chirico is known for his metaphysical paintings of 1911 to 1919. These paintings depict empty Italian piazzas with long shadows, classical statues, trains on the horizon, clocks, and an atmosphere of inexplicable unease.
• What is Giorgio de Chirico's most famous work?+

  Giorgio de Chirico is best known for his paintings from the 1910s, produced in a style he originated called "metaphysical art". These works are characterised by deserted town squares, stark light, and illogical spatial relationships. While it is difficult to name a single "most famous" painting, *The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street* (1914) is a strong contender. It typifies the metaphysical style with its disquieting atmosphere. The composition features a young girl rolling a hoop, menancing shadows, and a statue. These elements create a sense of unease and mystery, a hallmark of de Chirico's aesthetic. Other significant works from this period include *The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon* (1910), *The Soothsayer's Recompense* (1913), and *Hector and Andromache* (1917). These paintings share similar themes and stylistic features, contributing to de Chirico's reputation as a master of unsettling, dreamlike imagery. His metaphysical period was relatively brief, but its impact on later surrealist artists was considerable.
• What should I know about Giorgio de Chirico's prints?+

  Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) is best known as a painter and sculptor. However, he also produced lithographs and etchings, particularly in the later decades of his career. De Chirico's prints often revisit themes and imagery from his earlier, more celebrated paintings. These include empty piazzas, classical statues, trains, and illogical juxtapositions of objects. Such motifs are associated with his development of Metaphysical painting, circa 1909-1919. His printmaking activity increased significantly after his return to Italy in 1947. This was a period when he explored and reinterpreted his earlier subjects, sometimes creating variations of his iconic compositions. Many of these later works are viewed as repetitions. However, they provided de Chirico with a means to further explore his artistic ideas and make his work more accessible to a wider audience through the medium of print.
• What style or movement did Giorgio de Chirico belong to?+

  Giorgio de Chirico is associated with Pittura Metafisica (Metaphysical Painting). He and Carlo Carrà founded this movement after meeting in 1917, while both were assigned to a hospital in Ferrara during World War One. However, de Chirico had been working in a metaphysical style several years prior to meeting Carrà. The Metaphysical Painting movement lasted roughly from 1909 to 1919. De Chirico's style featured static, often sinister, views of town squares inspired by Italian architecture, using exaggerated perspective. He populated these imaginary locations with unexpected objects. His style was unique for its time, drawing influence from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. De Chirico's enigmatic works from 1911 to 1917, with their dreamlike atmosphere and irrational perspective, provided inspiration for the Surrealists. His theatrical intensity, with every piazza like a stage, also influenced Surrealist art. After 1925, de Chirico adopted a more traditional style.
• What techniques or materials did Giorgio de Chirico use?+

  Giorgio de Chirico's early training included drawing from nude models, and painting studies at the Athens Polytechnic Institute. Later, at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, he became interested in the art of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger. De Chirico's mature style, termed "Metaphysical painting" by Guillaume Apollinaire, often featured disconcerting spaces achieved by disrupting traditional perspective. He created jarring juxtapositions of objects that evoked a disquieting reality. His paintings from 1911 to 1917 employ irrational perspective, the elongation of shadows, and a hallucinatory focus on objects. Italian piazzas, bounded by arcades or classical facades, became silent settings. After the First World War, de Chirico articulated his theories of Metaphysical painting and classicism. In the 1920s, he reconsidered the theme of the mannequin, composing figures from fantastic architectural elements. Later in life, he investigated painting techniques, mixing his own glossy emulsions to facilitate brushwork.
• What was Giorgio de Chirico known for?+

  Giorgio de Chirico, born in Volos, Greece, in 1888, was an Italian painter best known for founding the Metaphysical painting movement with Carlo Carrà. De Chirico studied in Athens and Munich, where he encountered the art of Arnold Böcklin and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer. By 1911, he had moved to Paris, exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne and Salon des Indépendants. De Chirico's Metaphysical style, developed more fully after 1915, featured disquieting city squares populated by solitary monuments and dark arcades. He disrupted traditional perspective, creating disconcerting spaces and jarring juxtapositions of objects. His dreamlike compositions used irrational perspective, elongated shadows, and hallucinatory focus. De Chirico's images seemed the pictorial equivalent of the chance encounter, on an operating table, of a sewing machine and an umbrella. His paintings profoundly influenced the Surrealists; however, after 1925, de Chirico adopted a more traditional style.
• When did giorgio de chirico die?+

  Giorgio de Chirico died in 1978 at the age of 90.
• When did Giorgio de Chirico live and work?+

  Giorgio de Chirico was born on 10 July 1888 in Volos, Greece, to Italian parents. His father, Evaristo de Chirico, was an engineer working on the Thessaly railway. The family moved between Volos and Athens; these travels later influenced de Chirico's art. De Chirico studied painting in Athens, then at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence (1905-6), and at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich (1906-10). In Munich, he encountered the work of German Symbolists, including Arnold Böcklin. In 1911, de Chirico moved to Paris. There, he exhibited melancholic city square images at the Salon d’Automne of 1912, featuring solitary monuments and dark arcades. These works disrupted traditional perspective, creating disconcerting spaces. By late 1914, mannequins appeared in his work, influenced by the collaborative work of his brother Alberto Savinio and Guillaume Apollinaire. When Italy entered the First World War in 1915, de Chirico was posted to Ferrara, where he met Filippo de Pisis and Carlo Carrà. With Carrà, he developed Metaphysical painting. After the war, he articulated his theories in essays, distinguishing his art from Carrà's. De Chirico lived in Rome for over thirty years and died there on 20 November 1978.
• Where can I see Giorgio de Chirico's work?+

  Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) exhibited extensively in Europe and North America during his lifetime. His first solo show was held at the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia in Rome in the winter of 1918-19. In 1921, the Galleria Arte in Milan held a one-man exhibition. He participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time in 1924. In 1928, de Chirico had one-man shows at the Arthur Tooth Gallery in London, and the Valentine Gallery in New York. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum also holds his work. De Chirico’s paintings before 1917 provided inspiration for the Surrealists. His images often depict Italian piazzas bounded by arcades or classical facades, transformed into silent settings.
• Where did giorgio de chirico live?+

  Giorgio de Chirico bought the seventeenth-century Palazzetto del Borgognoni in Rome three years after the end of World War Two. He lived and worked there for the last thirty years of his life.