Biography

Italian painter. He was trained under landscape artist Bresolin at the Accademia in Venice. On trips to France he came to know the Barbizon school. In 1868, he encountered the Macchiaioli in Florence and was influenced by Signorini. A trip to Rome and Naples introduced him to Nino Costa and the work of Palizzi, Morelli, and Gigante, the combination of Romantic painting and Realism influenced him considerably.

On returning to Venice in 1869, Ciardi painted luminous, realistic scenes of the lagoon and the peasant life. His best works dazzle with their clear, balanced structure and the dense, rich palette of colours, where greens and blues predominate. After study tours through Italy, Germany and France he gained a great reputation at home and abroad as a leading Venetian plein-air painter.

Between 1894 and 1917 he was professor of landscape painting at the Academy in Venice.