(Viareggio, 1882 – Ostia, 1936), painter and writer, a student of Nomellini in Lucca, lived in Paris from 1908 to 1909, where he matured the transition from a late realism steeped in symbolism to a post-impressionism with a Fauvist tone. An anarchist, in the 1910s he created large, epic compositions of immediate expressiveness. In the post-war period, while he continued to develop his usual themes in painting (disinherited people, seascapes, Apuan landscapes), which he later took up again in the murals and large paintings of 1935 and 1936 for the Viareggio station and the Collegio IV Novembre in Ostia, Viani engaged in an intense literary production (“Ceccardo”, 1922; “Giovannin senza paura”, 1924; “I Vàgeri”, 1926; “Roccatagliata”, 1928; “Angiò uomo d'acqua”, 1928; “Stories of humble titans”, 1934; “Le chiave nel pozzo”, 1935) and journalism.
The Lorenzo Viani Collection is composed of two separate and distinct sets of documents, which arrived at the Foundation's Archives at different times: the first was donated in 1982, the second is regional property, deposited in 2002.
The first set of documents is divided into the following sections: Correspondence, which contains letters sent to Lorenzo Viani from numerous senders, including Nomellini, Ojetti, Novaro, Papini, Sarfatti, Soffici, Ungaretti, letters from Pascoli to Plinio Nomelline copied by Viani and letters sent to family members from various senders; Manuscripts, which collects material relating to Viani's novels, both published and unpublished, including “Paris”, Angiò uomo d'acqua”, “Ritorno alla patria”, poems, some published posthumously in the collection “La polla nel pantano”, others unpublished, poetic passages by other authors, including Renato Fucini, Viani's diaries from 1917, numerous stories mostly published in volumes (“I Vàgeri”, “Le chiave nel pozzo”, “Il cipresso e la vite”, “Il nano e la statua nera”), others unpublished, some family notebooks; Photo Library, about thirty photographs, almost all portraits of the artist; Press review, which contains two articles by Viani and some articles on his work; Periodicals Section, which collects some newspapers, mostly from the Versilia area (“I Vàgeri”, “Tirrenia”, “Riviera versiliese”); Printed material, where posters, invitations, catalogues of Viani's exhibitions, an incomplete copy of a poem in Genoese dialect by F.Muratori, “I ribelli” (1917) illustrated by the artist and photocopies with biographical information have been placed.
The second core of documents consists mostly of manuscripts and typescripts pertaining to Viano's prose, short stories, and novels, many of which are unidentified and incomplete, along with some letters and drafts of articles, and numerous scattered sheets. This material, of which only a simple inventory exists to date, must be organized and described analytically so as to proceed with a comprehensive computerized cataloguing that will standardize all the documentation held by the Foundation on the artist.
