Cipriano Antonio Mannucci (1882 Nice – 1970 Florence)
The Pearl Necklace
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimension: 66 x 50 cm
Frame: Yes
Biography
Cipriano Antonio Mannucci (1882–1970) was an Italian painter active in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, known for his refined portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes. He was born on May 18, 1882, in Nice, at the time part of France, into an Italian family, and he spent most of his artistic life in Florence, the city with which his career is most closely associated. He trained at the Scuola d’Arte di Santa Croce in Florence, where he developed a solid academic foundation combined with an openness to modern stylistic currents.
Early Years
Early in his career, Mannucci gained recognition within Italian artistic circles, notably winning a prize in 1908 at an exhibition organized by the Società Fiorentina di Belle Arti. Seeking broader horizons, he spent several formative years in Paris, where he exhibited at major venues such as the Salon des Artistes Français and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Exposure to the Parisian art scene influenced his use of light and color, introducing elements that recall Impressionism and, in some works, an elegant Art Nouveau sensibility.
From the 1910s onward, Mannucci achieved increasing international success. Around 1912 his work attracted interest in Britain, and in 1921 he held a successful solo exhibition in London. This led to invitations to exhibit at the Royal Academy in London and in Edinburgh, as well as commissions for portraits of members of British high society. In 1920 he was awarded by the Società di Belle Arti di Firenze for his Autoritratto in nero, and he also received a silver medal at the International Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro for the painting Pubertà. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s he regularly participated in important Italian exhibitions, including several editions of the Venice Biennale.
Mannucci’s work encompasses portraits, landscapes, and intimate scenes of everyday life, alongside larger allegorical compositions. His painting is characterized by technical finesse, a sensitive handling of light, and a luminous yet controlled palette, bridging late 19th-century traditions with early 20th-century modern sensibilities. His works entered both public collections—such as museums and galleries in various Italian cities—and private collections across Europe.
He continued to paint and exhibit well into his later years, remaining an active and respected figure in Italian art until his death in Florence on August 17, 1970. Today, Cipriano Antonio Mannucci is remembered as a versatile and accomplished painter whose career reflects the transition from academic traditions to a more modern pictorial language in Italian art.
