Filippo de Pisis (1896-1958)

By an early age, Fillippo de Pisis had the opportunity to take part in several major movements of the European vanguard. The formation of his aesthetic convictions was profoundly marked by his 1916 meeting with Giorgio de Chirico, Umberto Savinio and Carlo Carrà, who introduced him to metaphysical painting. In the same year, he produced four compositions from a series of five plates, originally intended to be sent to Tristan Tzara for publication in the Dada magazine. However, the war had paralyzed all of Europe and these works never arrived with Tzara. In a letter to Tzara, De Pisis said, “Alas, war is a great enemy of art” (letter from Filippo de Pisis addressed to Tristan Tzara, 11 January 1917).

Instead they were entrusted to his sister, Ernesta Tibertelli, and were kept in the family until sold at Christies, Paris in 2011, as part of the sale of the collection of Bona Tibertelli de Pisis-Pieyre de Mandiargues.

De Pisis devoted himself entirely to painting from 1920 onwards, and was notably in contact with the realistic paintings of the 'Novecento' movement. He went on to develop an aesthetic influenced by his surrealist, futuristic and metaphysical experiences which set him apart from the avant-garde.