The self-portrait opposite is from the “Spaghetti Dish” in the museum’s collection.

Born of Armenian parents in Rostov-on-Don on 20 August 1900, he abandoned his studies in classics to devote himself to painting, and left Russia in 1919 during the revolution. He came to Paris through Constantinople and Vienna in Austria.

During a period in 1923 when he stayed in Berlin, he married Elena Boberman. They were on their honeymoon in Monaco when they decided to travel onwards to to Italy. The couple stayed in Naples, Florence, Milan and Venice before moving to Rome at the end of the year.

After the success of his participation in the Venice Biennale in 1926, he returned to Paris where he remained from 1927 to 1932.

He was a member of the “Ani” Group created in 1926 bringing together Armenian painters in the diaspora, and exhibited at the Salon d'Automne [The Autumn Exhibition], the Salon des Tuileries [The Tuileries Exhibition] and the Salon des Indépendants [Exhibition of Independent Artists] from 1926 to 1931.

He gained international recognition as a result of his participation in 1928 in the “Exhibition of Russian Art” held at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He did not, however, fit in to the modern avant-garde which was in full swing between Paris and Brussels, and after the fiasco of his solo exhibition in Belgium in 1933, he decided to return to Italy and settled in Milan. He was awarded a gold medal at the “Triennale di Milano” exhibition in 1940, and exhibited several works at the “Venice Biennale” in 1942.

He is one of the major figures of Italian neo-realism.

The spontaneity of his brushstrokes expresses the joie de vivre that we can find through his genre scenes and even in his still lifes.

In the 1950s he painted opera sets for La Scala in Milan. He also illustrated the works of Tolstoy.

He created the decor for the first class restaurant of the liner “Raffaello” launched in Genoa in 1965 and which sailed between Italy and the United States.

The amazing fate of the works of Gregorio Chiltian in connection with this liner. In August 1977 the “Rafaello”, which had cost the astronomical sum at the time of 90 million dollars and which was running at a loss, was sold to the Shah of Iran for 3 million dollars. It came to a cruel end as six years later in 1983, it was sunk in the Islamic Republic of Iran in the port of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf during a raid by Iraqi bombers during the Iran-Iraq war. The wreck still lies at the bottom of the harbour.

He was not only a talented painter but also had a gift for writing and published a theoretical treatise on painting in Rome in 1976.

He died on Monday, 1st April 1985 at the age of 85 in his Roman apartment, a true labyrinth overlooking the Tiber. The National Gallery of Armenia in Yerevan has several of his works.

Frédéric Fringhian