Artist, born in Volos, Greece. He studied at Athens and Munich, working later in Paris, and with Carrà in Italy. About 1910 he began to produce a series of dreamlike pictures of deserted squares, which had considerable influence on the Surrealists. His whole style after 1915 is often called metaphysical painting, including semi-abstract geometric figures and stylized horses. In the 1930s he reverted to an academic style.
Life and work
After studying art in Athens and Florence, de Chirico moved to Germany in 1906 and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche and
Arthur Schopenhauer, and studied the works of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger. At the beginning of 1910 he moved to Florence where he painted the first of his 'Metaphysical Town Square' series:
The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon after the revelation he felt in Piazza Santa Croce. He also painted The Enigma of the Oracle while in Florence.
De Chirico also published a novel in 1925: Hebdomeros, the Metaphysician. His brother, Andrea de Chirico, who became famous as Alberto Savinio, was also a writer and a painter.
Legacy
De Chirico won praise for his work almost immediately from writer Guillaume Apollinaire, who helped to introduce his work to the later Surrealists.
Trivia
The 1914 painting Melancholy and Mystery of a Street was used as the cover for the first UK paperback edition of Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, part of the His Dark Materials
trilogy.
De Chirico's 1915 painting The Seer (or The Prophet) is featured on the cover of jazz pianist Thelonious Monk's 1958 album Misterioso.
Selected works
Flight of the Centauri,
Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon and
Enigma of the Oracle (1909)
Ritratto di Andrea de Chirico (Alias Alberto Savinio) (1909-1910)
Enigma
of the Hour and
The Nostalgia of the Infinite (1911)
Melanconia,
The Enigma of the Arrival and
La Matinèe Angoissante (1912)
The Red Tower,
Ariadne,
The Awakening of Ariadne,
The Uncertainty of the Poet,
La Statua Silenziosa,
The Anxious Journey,
Melancholy of a Beautiful Day,
Le Rêve Transformé and
Melancholy and Mystery of a Street (1913)
The Anguish of Departure (began in 1913),
Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire,
The Nostalgia of the Poet,
L'Énigme de la
fatalité,
Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure),
Love Song,
The Enigma of a Day,
The Philosopher’s Conquest,
The Child’s Brain,
The Philosopher
and the Poet and
Piazza d’Italia (Autumn Melancholy) (1914)
The Evil Genius of a King (began in 1914),
The Seer (or
The Prophet),
Piazza d’Italia,
The
Double Dream of Spring,
The Purity of a Dream,
Two Sisters (The Jewish Angel) and
The Duo (1915)
Andromache,
The Melancholy of Departure,
The Disquieting
Muses,
Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits (1916)
Metaphysical Interior with Large Factory and
The Faithful Servitor (both began in 1916),
The Great Metaphysician,
Ettore e Andromaca,
Metaphysical Interior and
Great Metaphysical Interior (1917)
Metaphysical Muses and
Hermetic Melancholy (1918)
Still Life with Salami
and
The Sacred Fish (1919)
Self-portrait (1920)
Italian Piazza,
Maschere and
Departure of the Argonauts (1921)
The Prodigal Son (1922)
Florentine
Still Life (c. 1923)
The House with the Green Shutters (1924)
Au Bord de la Mer,
Le Grand Automate,
The Terrible Games,
Mannequins on the Seashore and
The Painter (1925)
La Commedia e la Tragedia (
Commedia Romana),
The Painter’s Family and
Cupboards in a Valley (1926)
L’Esprit de Domination,
The
Eventuality of Destiny (Monumental Figures),
Mobili nella valle and
The Archaeologists (1927)
Temple et Foret dans la Chambre (1928)
Gladiatori (began in 1927),
The Archaeologists IV (from the series Metamorphosis),
The return of the Prodigal son I (from the series Metamorphosis) and
Bagnante (Ritratto di Raissa) (1929) Illustrations
from the book
Calligrammes by Guillaume Apollinaire (1930)
I Gladiatori (Combattimento) (1931)
Cavalos a Beira-Mar (1932-1933)
Cavalli in Riva al Mare (1934)
La
Vasca di Bagni Misteriosi (1936)
Self-portrait (1935-1937)
Archeologi (1940) Illustrations from the book
L’Apocalisse (1941)
Villa Medici - Temple and Statue
(1945)
Minerva (1947)
Metaphysical Interior with Workshop (1948)
Fiat (1950)
Piazza d’Italia (1952)
The Fall - Via Crucis (1947-54)
Venezia, Isola di San
Giorgio (1955)
Salambò su un cavallo impennato (1956)
Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits (1958)
Piazza d’Italia (1962)
Cornipedes, (1963)
Manichino (1964)
Ettore e Andromaca (1966)
The Return of Ulysses and
Mysterious Baths - Flight Toward the Sea (1968)
Il rimorso di Oreste and
Solitudine della Gente di Circo
(1969)
Orfeo Trovatore Stanco and
Muse with Broken Column (1970)
Metaphysical Interior with Setting Sun (1971)
Sole sul cavalletto (1972)
Mobili e rocce in una
stanza,
La Mattina ai Bagni misteriosi and
La mattina ai bagni misteriosi (1973)
Pianto d’amore - Ettore e Andromaca and
The Sailors’ Barracks (1974)
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