Itinerant artist, son of an Italian Marquis and an English mother he was born in Siena, studied art in Florence and arrived in Melbourne in 1886. In 1892 he painted Robert Louis Stevenson. He helped introduce impressionism to Australia. He appears to have been resident in Western Australia in 1898. His address was c/o “Norman” Hay Street.
He exhibited On the Canning ; Old Man ; Laughing Jackasses ; The Independent ; Portrait of Mr A. Austin and a watercolour The Student with the West Australian Society of Arts in 1898. The reviewer was fulsome “Mr G. P. Nerli is a new name in this colony, and hails from the Italian school. His best work is undoubtedly Ninety Years of Age which is also in my opinion, considerably above any other work in the exhibition. It is a simple subject, showing, one might say, one of the 'simple annals of the poor’ – an old woman attending to her household duties, while fowls are picking about on the kitchen floor. The chiaroscuro, brushwork, and colour are very admirable, and in Mr Nerli’s treatment of his subject one can also see the real feeling and sympathy of an artist.” (48) He was not quite so complimentary about the other works though he did describe The Independent as a “masterful piece of work unmistakable evidence of a Continental training in the broad rapid brush strokes and effects.”
- Writers:
- Erickson, Dorothy (Dr)
- Date written:
- 2011
- Last updated:
- 2011
