Stefano Ussi

Stefano Ussi was an Italian painter, known for his history paintings. He produced realist work, and more orientalist genre paintings in the latter part of his career.

Born in Florence where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, he was influenced and sometimes associated with the Macchiaioli group of painters. The movement, originally from Tuscany, brought together painters who challenged the techniques of the traditional Academy and favoured a looser brushwork, resulting in paintings with more freshness and luminosity.

He will make himself a reputation with the painting The Expulsion of the Duke of Athens.

The painting is inspired from a book of Niccolò Machiavelli, telling stories of Florence and in particular the expulsion of the Duke of Athens, in 1343. It was likely intended to commemorate the recent liberation of Italy from oppressive foreign rule -the Austrian Empire. The painting was a triumph at the National Exhibition of Florence in 1861, and at the 1867 Paris Exhibition.

Towards the 1870s he visited Egypt and Morocco, travels that will inspire him lots of artworks. He is considered one of the Orientalist painters of the Ottocento and exhibited his work in many Italian cities like Turin, Milan.