Biographies

Pietro Longhi (1702 – 1785) The principal diarist of eighteenth century Venice’s daily life and mores, Pietro Longhi studied with his father, Alessandro, and then until the end of 1719 was a pupil of Antonio Balestra before travelling to Bologna. There he spent several years in the studio of G.M. Crespi, in whose style, combined with that of Balestra and A.Longhi, he continued to work well into the 1730s. Under the impact of the work of French painters such as , Lancret and Mercier, Pietro Longhi made a dramatic shift in emphasis during the 1730s to his famous genre style, initiating it with small pastoral scenes showing shepherds and shepherdesses. Watteau