De Chrico

De Chirico attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich after studying at the High School of Fine Arts in Athens. During his time in Germany, he became interested in the mythological themes of Symbolist painters such as Arnold Böcklin. Moving to Florence after finishing school, he began producing some of his hallmark works. In 1917, De Chirico wrote about his ideas on Metaphysical painting with the help of his friend Carlo Carrà. After gaining success and influencing René Magritte and André Breton, he renounced not only Metaphysical and Surrealist painting but all of Modern Art with his essay The Return of Craftsmanship (1919). Many critics of the time were disappointed by the works he made, which revisited traditional iconography and techniques found in Neoclassical and Baroque paintings. He profited from the popularity of his earlier Metaphysical works by frequently making copies of them for the rest of his life. The artist died in Rome, Italy on November 20, 1978. Today, De Chirico’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.