LONGHI, FAMIGLIA. – Two painters: PIETRO, born in 1702 in Venice, died there on 8 May 1785.
After a rather unsuccessful attempt at monumental painting (Palazzo Sagredo, Venice 1734), he devoted himself almost exclusively to genre painting, in scenes of Venetian life rendered with witty and good-natured vivacity, not without a certain satirical edge, and through which he acquired a reputation as an anecdotal and superficial painter. Series of his works are found in Venice, in the Galleria Querini Stampalia (among them the youthful Cacce, formerly in the Donà dalle Rose collection), in the Museo di Palazzo Rezzonico, at the Accademia and in the Salom collection, in Padua at the Museo civico, in Milan (Brera), and in many other collections. Pietro also left several excellent portraits and beautiful drawings at the Museo Correr in Venice.
ALESSANDRO, born in 1733 in Venice, died there in 1813. His father Pietro placed him in the workshop of G. Nogari, a portraitist, and in this genre he specialized, acquiring widespread fame.
Among his early works, in which the influence of his father’s taste is very evident, are the large portrait of the Pisani family (Venice, Bentivoglio d’Aragona collection) and that of the Balotin del dove in the Museo of Belluno. Numerous other portraits followed, scattered among public and private collections: those of the architect Temanza and Padre Lodoli in the Galleries of Venice (where there is also the siggio executed for the Venetian Academy: La pittura and Il merito), that of Goldoni in the Museo Correr, that of an Admiral in the Museo civico of Padua, etc. In all of them there is a sense of fresh vitality, a pungent wit, and a vivacity of color that even the neoclassical fashion would not succeed in cooling. Alessandro was also an engraver.