Mario Puccini: From Asylum to Poverty, Then Rediscovery

Mario Puccini (1869-1920), son of a Livorno baker, defied his father to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence in 1884, where he connected with the Macchiaioli group led by Giovanni Fattori and befriended Silvestro Lega and Plinio Nomellini. After returning to Livorno, a romantic disappointment triggered a severe depression, leading to five years in psychiatric hospitals in Livorno and Siena. Upon release, he worked at his father's trattoria La Bohème while his painting shifted to violent colors and free brushstrokes reminiscent of the Fauves, exemplified by "Darsena" (1902). After his parents died, he lived in a basement, sold kites and toys, and used sardine can oil for paint. He decorated a room at Caffè Bardi in 1909, where friends Benvenuto Benvenuti and Piero Pierotti della Sanguigna formed a society in 1911 to sell his works. Collectors like Gustavo Sforni (who owned Degas, Cézanne, Utrillo, van Gogh) and artists like Oscar Ghiglia admired him. Critic Emilio Cecchi called him an "involuntary van Gogh," and Raffaele De Grada compared him to Amedeo Modigliani. His health declined from tuberculosis; he spent his final years in Maremma painting landscapes. Long neglected, he was rediscovered through the exhibition "Mario Puccini 'Van Gogh involontario'. Una collezione riscoperta e altri capolavori" curated by Nadia Marchioni, open until September 21, 2021 at the Museo della Città di Livorno.