Author(s): Michael Dunn

Coffee Table Books

This is the first major study of the Italian painter Girolamo Pieri Nerli, who spent the last two decades of the nineteenth century in Australia and New Zealand and is best known as a teacher of Frances Hodgkins. Nerli painted a wide range of subjects in a wide range of styles and is associated with the introduction of Impressionism to the Antipodes. Though he returned to Italy his most important work was done in the South Pacific and most of it remains here. His best paintings, full of colour and warmth often with attractive human subjects, have continuing appeal and relevance to both Australia and New Zealand at an important turning point in their cultures. The book includes an introductory text and 41 full-page full-colour reproductions of the most important paintings, each with commentary on the facing page. There is also a chronology, a bibliography, an appendix reproducing some vivid letters written by Nerli and his wife, and a list of exhibitions.