{{Short description|Italian painter and engraver (1884 - 1942)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Argio Orell | image = Argio Orell.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = 17 September 1884 | birth_place = Trieste, Austria-Hungary | death_date = {{death-date and age|10 January 1942|17 September 1884}} | death_place = Trieste, Italy | resting_place = | education = Academy of Fine Arts, Munich | alma_mater = | known_for = Painting, graphic arts, engraving | notable_works = | style = | movement = Vienna Secession; Japonisme | spouse = | partner = | awards = | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }} '''Argio Orell''' (17 September 1884 – 10 January 1942)<ref name="arcipelago">{{cite web|title=Mostra "ARGIO ORELL pittore triestino (1884-1942) – Raffinatezza e seduzione|url=https://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/mostra-argio-orell-pittore-triestino-1884-1942-raffinatezza-e-seduzione/|website=arcipelagoadriatico|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210510224114/https://www.arcipelagoadriatico.it/mostra-argio-orell-pittore-triestino-1884-1942-raffinatezza-e-seduzione/|archive-date=10 May 2021}}</ref><ref name="istituto">{{cite book|author=Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente|editor=Adolfo Tamburello|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVY-AQAAIAAJ|title=Italia-Giappone, 450 anni|page=329|publisher=Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente|year=2003|isbn=}}</ref> was an Italian painter and engraver.<ref name="rizzoli"/> He was one of the most sought-after Italian portraitists in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name="piccolo">{{cite web|last=Delbello|first=Piero|title=Argio Orell, il pittore che Trieste ha dimenticato in fretta|url=https://ricerca.gelocal.it/ilpiccolo/archivio/ilpiccolo/2005/10/22/NZ_27_OREL.html|website=Il Piccolo|access-date=11 May 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20210510233620/https://ricerca.gelocal.it/ilpiccolo/archivio/ilpiccolo/2005/10/22/NZ_27_OREL.html|archive-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>
==Biography== He was born in Trieste on 17 September 1884, the son of Giuseppe and Calliope Iconomo.<ref name="piccolo"/> Orell trained with Eugenio Scomparini at the ''Scuola Industriale in Trieste''.<ref name="istituto"/><ref name="rizzoli">{{cite book |author=Giovanni Fanelli |author2=Ezio Godoli|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIdQAAAAMAAJ|title=Art nouveau postcards|page=358|publisher=Rizzoli|year=1987|isbn=978-0-8478-0832-8}}</ref> Later, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he studied under Franz von Stuck.<ref name="istituto"/><ref name="xxx">{{cite book |author=Franz Leitgeb |author2=Gerhard Michael Dienes |author3=Johanna Flitsch|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4MiAQAAIAAJ|title="TransLOKAL" 9 Städte im Netz (1848-1918): Bratislava/Pressburg, Brno/Brünn, Graz, Kraków/Krakau, Ljubljana/Laibach, München, Pécs/Fünfkirchen, Trieste/Triest, Zabreb/Agram|page=259|publisher=Leykam|year=1996|isbn=978-3-7011-7335-8}}</ref> He was admitted to the course even though he was seventeen and technically not allowed to do so, wanted by von Stuck, who appreciated his first works.<ref name="piccolo"/> He was influenced by van Stuck who took him under his wing, and at the end of the course was awarded the prize for the best work by a foreign student.<ref name="piccolo"/> thumb|left|Portorose manifesto, 1920
Returned to Trieste, he had successful expositions there, and started "a production both of posters and paintings that extended his fame well above the local boundaries [of Trieste]."<ref name="piccolo"/> After successful expositions in Rome and Bergamo, with the King of Italy among his estimators and clients, he became, in the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most sought-after Italian portraitists.<ref name="piccolo"/> In 1906 he painted the windows of Trieste's Palazzo Modello in Piazza Grande, which hosted exhibitions, together with Vito Timmel.<ref name="marri"/>
During the First World War he was recruited by the Austrian army, and sent to Radkersburg, together with several prominent artists and intellectuals, including his friend and fellow painter Vito Timmel.<ref name="piccolo"/><ref name="marri">{{cite book |last=Marri |first=Franca |date=December 2005 |title=Vito Timmel |url=https://fondazionecrtrieste.it/edizioni/07_Vito_Timmel/Vito_Timmel.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510144827/https://fondazionecrtrieste.it/edizioni/07_Vito_Timmel/Vito_Timmel.pdf |archive-date=2021-05-10 |publisher=Fondazione CRT |access-date=6 May 2021}}</ref> During the time spent there, he painted mural paintings (now lost) for the club ''Bohem'' together with Timmel.<ref name="marri"/>
Orell was a painter and a commercial artist, publishing posters for several companies. Some fifteen posters were found, some inspired by Leonetto Cappiello, others, such as "Pelliccerie Cohen," by Marcello Dudovich.<ref name="casella">{{cite book |author=Alberto Casella |author2=Marco Cicolini |author3=Paola Morelli|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4MiAQAAIAAJ|title=Catalogo Bolaffi del manifesto italiano dizionario degli illustratori|page=165|publisher=Bolaffi|year=1995|isbn=978-88-85846-57-9}}</ref>
He was an appreciator of Japanese culture.<ref name="xxx"/> He probably first came into contact with Japonisme during his stay in Munich. Orell approached Japanese art by reading journals and books on Ukiyo-e and studying specific Japanese woodcuts, and at the same time started collecting Ukiyo-e,<ref name="curci">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoZCAQAAIAAJ |author=Roberto Curci |author2=Vanja Strukelj|title=Dudovich & C. i triestini nel cartellonismo italiano: Trieste-Stazione marittima, 1 agosto 8 settembre 1977|page=56|publisher=La editoriale libraria|year=1977|isbn=}}</ref> going on to own a precious collection.<ref name="tamburello">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVY-AQAAIAAJ|author=Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, Università degli studi di Napoli "L'Orientale."|editor=Adolfo Tamburello|title=Italia-Giappone, 450 anni|page=329|publisher=Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente|year=2003|isbn=}}</ref> In 1910 he painted the poster for the Fair of Capodistria, in which he "combined that Japonisme that came for the passion for Hokusai to the dictates of Secessionism, interpreting them in his own way, offering very elegant solutions."<ref name="piccolo"/> In 1912 he was the curator of an exposition of Oriental art in Trieste.<ref name="quarterly">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuspAQAAIAAJ|title=Print Quarterly Volume 22, Issue 1|page=62|publisher=Print Quarterly Limited|year=2005|isbn=}}</ref>
He died in Trieste on 10 January 1942.<ref name="rizzoli"/>
==Gallery== <gallery widths="220px" heights="240px" perrow="4"> File:ORELL-Ritratto-femminile 01.jpg|''Ritratto femminile'', oil on panel File:ORELL-Ritratto-femminile 03.jpg|''Il Navarca'', oil on panel File:ORELL-Ritratto-femminile 04.jpg|''Allegory'', pastel and watercolor on cardboard File:ORELL-Ritratto-femminile 02.jpg|''Trieste in the 19th Century'', oil on panel File:Argio-orell-giovane-donna-con-orecchini.jpg|''Giovane donna con orecchini'', oil on plywood File:Orell argio - painting.jpg|Portrait of a Woman File:Argio Orell - Acqua Colonia Mizzan.jpg|''Acqua Colonia Mizzan'', poster File:Orell Untitled (53).jpg|''Pre-maiden voyage introductory brochure for the Saturnia'' </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Orell, Argio}} Category:1884 births Category:1942 deaths Category:Painters from Austria-Hungary Category:Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in Germany Category:20th-century Italian painters Category:Vienna Secession