Official archive

Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone

Painter, writer, teacher, and illustrator, Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone shaped a private, cultivated, and intensely chromatic world between Monferrato and Turin.

Painting by Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone with a seated figure, table, plant, and warm interior colors
Biography

A Life Shaped By Painting

Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone was born in Casale Monferrato on February 10, 1931, to Francesco Emanuele and Caterina Elisabetta Grillo. From her family she inherited an artistic inclination that had been present for generations, and in this receptive environment her visual and literary imagination emerged early through drawings, paintings, a novel titled L'esilio, and a collection of stories titled Il mattino.

She moved to Turin to continue her studies and, in 1949, graduated with top marks from the Liceo Artistico of the Accademia Albertina. In the same period she won a teaching post in drawing for Italian secondary schools. During her youth she also painted frescoes and decorative panels for churches and theatres in Piedmont, Liguria, and Lombardy.

In 1950 Noemi Gabrielli, Superintendent for the Artistic Heritage of Piedmont, selected her as a collaborator for the Eucharistic Congress exhibition at Palazzo Chiablese. After distinguishing herself in a free course connected to the natural sciences, she received another important assignment: anthropological illustrations for the Enciclopedia di Scienze Naturali published by the Istituto Geografico De Agostini.

Her Accademia teacher Francesco Menzio introduced her to the artistic circle of the "Six Painters of Turin". Francesco Menzio, Guido Capra, and Carlo Carrà were her masters, from whom she learned the craft before embarking on an independent path of experiments essential to her own artistic formation. In Turin she also followed the teaching of the sculptor Guido Capra, a pupil of Leonardo Bistolfi, who dedicated to her a portrait in painted terracotta.

She opened a painting studio in via Cigliano, on the bank of the Po, and taught art education at the Goffredo Mameli middle school in Turin. Alongside teaching, she exhibited in Italy and abroad, then gradually withdrew to her solitary villa in the hills of Monferrato, where she devoted herself to study, research, and a large body of oil paintings and drawings organized in several cycles.

More attentive to the inner logic of her art than to market trends or external movements, she developed a refined and energetic language. Her still lifes and figures are essential, evocative, and vigorous, marked by a precise feeling for color, rhythm, and movement.

Critical Reception And Catalogues

Works, Collections, And References

Her work received favorable attention from critics and cultural figures including Oscar Ghez, president of the Petit Palais Museum in Geneva; Noemi Gabrielli, superintendent of the Art Galleries of Piedmont; Marziano Bernardi of La Stampa; Giovanni Viarengo, president of the Promotrice di Belle Arti of Turin and former Director General of RAI TV; Giovanna Barbero, art critic and A.I.C.A. member; Aldo Passoni, director of the Gallery of Modern Art in Turin; Angelo Mistrangelo, art critic for La Stampa; A. Minucci, art critic for La Stampa; Carlo Navone, journalist and art critic; Vittorio Bottino, journalist and art critic; Albino Galvano, painter and art critic; A. Peillez, art critic; and Vittorio Sgarbi.

Oil painting became her most congenial expressive medium: a way to narrate herself, her rooms, her figures, and her inner landscape. Her works entered Italian and international collections and have been catalogued by museums, galleries, and academies across Europe.

  • A. di Ricaldone, Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone, Casale Monferrato, 1983.
  • G. Barbero, Piemonte anni 80: pittura e scultura, Milan, 1985.
  • A. De Marchi, Izzia, Vercelli, 1991.
  • C. Prete, À rebours, Casale Monferrato, 2013.
Interior room connected to the Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone archive
Countess Matilde and Count Aldo di Ricaldone at the Romito residence in Ottiglio Monferrato. Archive photograph, December 1981.
Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone painting at the easel
Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone at work, brush in hand before the canvas.

Archive structure

A Digital Archive In Constant Growth

Stefano Grillo, contact for archive inquiries

Contact

Stefano Grillo di Ricaldone

For questions about the archive, available information on the artworks, exhibitions, or future catalogue updates, please contact the artist's testamentary heir and holder of the copyright rights to the opera omnia.