Longhi

a family of 18th-century Italian painters.

Pietro Longhi. Born in 1702 in Venice; died there May 8, 1785.

P. Longhi studied under G. M. Crespi. Influenced by French rococo genre painters, he abandoned the baroque style that characterized his early works (for example, Fall of the Giants, Palazzo Sagredo, c. 1734) and turned to intimate pictures, done in light, nearly pastel tones, that depicted Venetian patrician life (The Concert, 1741, Academy Gallery, Venice; Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice, 1751, National Gallery, London). In his later works the artist borrowed various devices from folk art, and his figures increasingly resembled droll marionettes. The ironic spirit of Longhi’s paintings is similar to that of the works of the dramatist C. Goldoni.

Alessandro Longhi. Born June 12, 1733, in Venice; died there in November 1813. Son of P. Longhi.

A. Longhi, who studied under his father, was a portraitist. His works, such as The Pisani Family (1758, Bentivoglio Collection, Venice), are marked by figures that are gently rendered in free, painterly strokes.