Provenance
Private collection, UK, circa 1900
Thence by descent

Francesco Lojacono was born in Sicily in 1838. He trained initially with his father Luigi and the history painter Salvatore Lo Forte (1809-1885). In 1856 he moved to Naples to study under Nicola Palizzi (1820-1870), having been awarded a gold medal for a small landscape that he exhibited in Palermo. At the outbreak of the revolution in 1860 Lojacono returned to Sicily and joined Garibaldi's Spedizione dei Mille (The Expedition of the Thousand), a corps of volunteers that assembled with the intention of conquering the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was under Bourbon rule. In 1862 he was one of the contingent that marched on Rome, but was arrested at the subsequent battle of Aspromonte.

After his release he concentrated on painting the landscape around Agrigento, a city on the southern coast of the island and the capital of an area rich with mineral deposits. The current lot with the given title of 'The Prospectors' may well depict local men in search of sulphur or rock salt. Lojacono also painted extensively along the coastal area around Palermo.

In 1872 he exhibited at the International Exhibition in Vienna and the same year became professor of landscape art at the Naples institute of Fine Arts. From 1896 to 1814 he taught landscape and seascape painting at the Palermo Academy of Fine Arts. He was named Commendatore of the Order of The Crown of Italy which was established was established as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861.

Additional information

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- 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings