Orfeo Tamburi

Houses in Paris - Drawing by Orfeo Tamburi - 1950s

1950s

Orfeo Tamburi was an Italian painter and scenic designer. After moving to Rome, he trained in the Roman School, and from an early age took part in the artistic life of the city, collaborating with articles and drawings in L'Italia Letteraria, Il Selvaggio and other magazines. His artworks were exhibited in Italy - at the Venice Biennale and the Rome Quadrennial - but also abroad. Tamburi's favorite subjects were mainly landscapes, urban views and Roman, Venetian and Parisian portraits. The artist was also active as a draftsman, illustrating old and modern works of poets and writers with etchings, lithographs and drawings. He created fifty drawings for Little Rome, with a poem by Ungaretti (Urbinati, 1944), Cineraccio by Leonardo Sinisgalli (Cento Amici del Book, 1966) and many others. In 1979, the Editions Denoël of Paris and Il Cigno Stamperia d'Arte in Rome published a precious three-volume work entitled Paris 20 + 1 with texts by Nino Frank, Georges Pillement and Paul Guth. For this edition, Tamburi created 105 drawings in black and 21 etchings in etching and aquatint in many colors. In 1941, the well-known futurist painter Gino Severini dedicated a monograph to the artist published by the publishing house Documento in the first volume of the series Artisti d'’oggi. In 1947, he moved to Paris, which from that moment became his city. Among the numerous awards obtained for his artistic activity, the First Class Gold Medal for the merit of Culture and Art awarded by the President of the Republic is significant.