BIOGRAPHY

Eugenio Zampighi was born at Modena, Italy on 17th October, 1859. He showed a keen interest in art whilst he was very young and at the age of thirteen he attended the Academy of Design. Zampighi completed all the course winning six first degree medals in the examinations. When he was twenty, Zampighi won a scholarship and spent three years in Rome. He was very successful in the yearly examinations and he became an Honourable Member of the Modena Academy. He spent the fourth year of his scholarship in Florence and he decided to settle there in 1884. It was here that Zampighi began to paint his well known genre subjects which were readily sold and he received many commissions from local dealers and from abroad. Taking inspiration from a poem by Leopardi, Zampighi executed a large painting that was exhibited in the hall of the Modena Academy. It was a great success and the Council of the Academy conferred upon him the degree of Professor. Zampighi then devoted himself to figure painting, representing scenes of the domestic life of his countrymen using pleasing composition and lively colours. These paintings made him famous and they are sought after by collectors in Italy and abroad, especially in Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia. The Museum of Modern Art of Modena possesses several of his paintings, two of historical subjects and one of genre. The artist died in 1946.