Literature

Pierre Ambrogiani was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, although he was brought up in Marseille, where he continued to live and work for the rest of his life. He was an Expressionist painter of Provencal landscapes, still lives, and nudes. Entirely self taught, he sustained a long career of over fifty years, with international recognition.

He participated in his first major exhibition with a group of fellow Provencal artists in 1936 in Marseille: numerous exhibitions followed, including one in Paris in 1946, and another in New York in 1947. He also illustrated many books, especially those written by his friend Marcel Pagnol, whose works evoked the hard, but lyrical, way of life in Provence in the early twentieth century.

In 1973 Pierre Ambrogiani had a major retrospective exhibition at the Musée de la Vieille Charité in Marseille, and after a long illness, died in 1985. The sun and colours of Provence were a constant theme throughout his work, coupled with his enduring delight in the bustle and energy of the picturesque old Port of Marseille.