De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his Metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images. At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannequins.
He won praise for his work almost immediately from the writer Guillaume Apollinaire, who helped to introduce his work to the later Surrealists. Yves Tanguy wrote how one day in 1922 he saw one of de Chirico's paintings in an art dealer's window, and was so impressed by it he resolved on the spot to become an artist -- although he had never even held a brush! Other artists who acknowledged de Chirico's influence include Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí, and René Magritte.
The Nostalgia of the Infinite 1911
De Chirico also published a novel in 1925: Hebdomeros, the Metaphysician. His later paintings never received the same critical praise as did those from his metaphysical period.
Giorgio and his brother Andrea, who in 1912 started to use the assumed name of Alberto Savinio, received a good education, based on ancient history, languages and Greek mythology.
De Chirico painted a series of claustrophobic interiors filled with extravagant objects - biscuits, maps and frames, while the mannequins were given a new monumentality and placed on the background of scenes of Ferrara, as in the “Great metaphysics†(Grande metafisico) of 1917.
The favour that the “first†de Chirico was shown by Breton, with the exclusion of the subsequent paintings, had considerable influence on his critical assessments.
De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his Metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images.
At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannikins.
Yves Tanguy[?] wrote how one day in 1922 he saw one of de Chirico's paintings in an art dealer's window, and was so impressed by it he resolved on the spot to become an artist -- although he had never even held a brush!
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