Giorgio Kienerk
(Firenze 1869 –Fauglia/Pisa 1948)
Born to an old Tuscan family, Kienerk began to study drawing and sculpture with the master Adriano Cecioni. At the age of only 17, he had the opportunity to show his works at the Florentine Promotrice show for new talent. When his teacher Cecioni died unexpectedly in 1886, Kienerk worked with Telemaco Signorini, who pushed him to master painting as well. At the end of the '80s, he was a regular patron at Volturno, a small restaurant in Florence, where he got to know Silvestro Lega. Together they painted several rooms in the restaurant.
From 1890-95 Giorgio's style moved more towards that of the Pointillists; during that time period he concentrated on drawing and finished a number of pastel sketches. He participated in all the Venice Biennials in the beginning of the 20th century. After winning the director's post at the Civic School of Painting in Pavia in 1905, he moved to that Lombard city and devoted himself to teaching. Profoundly affected by his distance from Florence, however, Kienerk entered a period of personal crisis in which he did not paint for many years, nor did he participate in any official exhibitions.
After 1913, he moved to his wife's house in Poggio alla Farnia, in the province of Pisa. Replanted in his own soil, he rediscovered his love of painting.