Giorgio Morandi was an Italian painter and etcher born in 1890 in Bologna. He learned engraving at the Fine Arts Academy of Bologna (Accademia Clementina) and studied the works of Rembrandt. Morandi’s style was influenced by the post impressionists and the first cubist painters such as Cézanne and Picasso. Morandi exhibited for the first time in 1914 with Osvaldo Licini, Mario Bacchelli, Giacomo Vespignani and Severo Pozzati at the hotel Baglioni in Bologna. From 1915 to 1929 he taught drawing in elementary schools and in 1930 returned to the Fine Arts Academy of Bologna as the chair of engraving.
The still lifes of the artist are part of his most notable works. Objects are carefully arranged on a table in his studio, generally pots or bottles that were found or bought in markets. The colours used are usually pale and the variations of tones subtle, sometimes in opposition with a stark white. Emptiness is just as important as fullness in his works and the objects depicted are superimposed in a poetic and abstract manner.
In 1948 he was awarded the first prize for painting at the Venice Biennale and in 1953 the Grand Prix for engraving at the second Biennale of São Paulo. After his death in 1964, exhibitions were organized around the world, notably at the Modern Art Museum of Bologna, the Metropolitan Museum of New York and in the White House collection in Washington, D.C.