Orfeo Tamburi

Orfeo Tamburi was a prominent Italian painter, draftsman, and journalist born in Jesi in 1910. After graduating from the Technical Institute of Jesi in 1926, he moved to Rome thanks to a scholarship, where he attended the Artistic High School of via Ripetta and later the Academy of Fine Arts. During his years in Rome, he connected with artists and intellectuals such as Ennio Flaiano and Vincenzo Cardarelli, beginning to publish his drawings and exhibit in important shows like the Rome Quadriennale and the Venice Biennale. In 1936, he created a fresco titled "Carnevale romano" in the Rome Registry Office and participated in significant exhibitions including those of the "Corrente" group.

In 1936, he made his first trip to Paris, a city that deeply influenced his artistic style, especially through the discovery of Paul Cézanne's works. After an initial stay in 1935, he permanently moved to Paris in 1947, where he developed a personal artistic language characterized by urban landscapes, repeated black windows, and lyrical, refined atmospheres. His painting is distinguished by a restrained use of color, often gray tones inspired by Utrillo, with occasional bursts of color.

Tamburi was also a friend and portraitist of many artists and writers, including Carlo Carrà, Carlo Levi, Blaise Cendrars, Sonia Delaunay, and Rudolf Nureyev. He collaborated with filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini, who also cast him as a painter in the film "L’invidia." In 1957, a trip to the United States led him to explore the relationship between his painting and American urban reality, focusing on skyscrapers and metropolitan views.

His work was exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, establishing his reputation as a leading figure in 20th-century urban landscape painting. Orfeo Tamburi died in Paris in 1994.