Overview
From Puglia to Paris and back. This is the path of Giuseppe De Nittis, the master of painting to whom the Barletta Art Gallery, which holds a number of masterpieces. Considered one of the greatest painters of the Italian 19th century, De Nittis was born in Barletta in 1846 and emigrated to France in 1867. In Paris, he exhibited together with the great masters of Impressionism, was awarded the Legion of Honour and died suddenly in 1884, to be buried in the famous Père-Lachaise cemetery. His return to his homeland therefore took place in a purely virtual, yet at the same time very concrete way, thanks to his wife Léontine Gruvelle, who donated a large number of her husband's works to the city of Barletta: in all, 146 paintings including portraits and paintings executed en plein air, 65 drawings, books belonging to the artist and his epistolary. Among the paintings exhibited in the gallery are "Passa il treno" (before 1880), "Il salotto della principessa Matilde Bonaparte" (1883) and "Colazione in giardino" (1883). The Art Gallery, originally set up in the castle of the city, was transferred for reasons of better preservation to the splendid palazzo della Marra, of Renaissance origin and later remodelled in the Lecce Baroque style, a unique case outside Salento. The rear loggia opens towards the sea and the porta Marina, the only one remaining of the ancient curtain wall that once surrounded Barletta.
