Michael John Angel, Lynne Barton and Jered Woznicki of the Angel Academy of Art, Florence, were at the opening, and Benedetto Annigoni explained to them that the museum will also host conferences on art and discuss the rebirth of Realism (and its future directions), thus making the museum a museo vivo, as he called it: a living museum. It is also the intention of the museum to exchange some of the paintings from time to time and show many more works by the maestro.

The museum is the result of years of work by the artist’s family, most notably by Annigoni’s son, Benedetto, and the maestro’s beautiful widow, Rosella. During his life, Annigoni was a rebel and a champion of Realist painting, who was very much at loggerheads with the art establishment; however, shortly after his death in 1988, the government of Florence mounted a huge show in the Palazzo Strozzi. It was a delight to see the artist’s work so beautifully honored by the very art establishment that had fought with him throughout his lifetime. And now, too, there is this spectacular, official museum, where art students and the modern masters of the New Realism can see the work of the painter whom Bernard Berenson called the greatest artist of the 20th century.

Pietro Annigoni was born in Milan in 1910 and moved to Florence with his family in the mid-1920s. He leaped to fame with his 1955 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II of England and, after this, was recognized as the greatest portrait painter in the world. As well as portraits (usually in oil-tempera), he painted many allegories and frescoes for churches throughout Italy. His work is in many royal collections and public museums, such as the National Portrait Gallery in London, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Vatican Museums in Rome. His students and “artistic progeny” include such painters as Michael John Angel, Antonio Ciccone, Benjamin Long, Nelson Shanks, Daniel Graves, Romano Stefanelli, Silvestro Pistolesi, Fernando Bernardini and Gianni Cacciarini. A biography of Annigoni can be found on the ARC Museum and on Wikipedia. There are many other on-line sites and many books, as well as a biographical film: Annigoni: Portrait of an Artist.

Click here for a brief video presentation.