Official archive

Matilde Izzia di Ricaldone

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

matildeizziadiricaldone.com

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". Menzio, Guido Capra, and Carlo Carrà were among the figures from whom she learned, before moving toward the experiments she considered necessary for her own pictorial 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; Marziano Bernardi of La Stampa; Giovanni Viarengo; Giovanna Barbero; Aldo Passoni; Angelo Mistrangelo; A. Minucci; Carlo Navone; Vittorio Bottino; Albino Galvano; and A. Peillez.

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 and A. Rebours, Casale Monferrato, 2013.

Archive structure

A Digital Archive In Constant Growth

01

Biography

A biographical profile from Casale Monferrato to Turin, and finally to Il Romito, the villa in the Monferrato hills.

02

Gallery

The full artistic production: more than three hundred works to explore.

03

Exhibitions

A timeline of personal, collective, and posthumous exhibitions.

Stefano Grillo, contact for archive inquiries

Contact

Dr. Stefano Grillo di Ricaldone

For questions about the archive, available information on the artworks, exhibitions, or future catalogue updates, please contact the family representative.