The Museum:
The Kienerk Museum is dedicated to Giorgio Kienerk's works and contains the collection that his daughter, Vittoria Kienerk, donated to the community of Fauglia (Pisa), Italy.
From 1919 to the artist's death, in 1948, Giorgio Kienerk, his wife Margherita and their daughter, spent every summer on the family estate that is located nearby the old village, on the road called Poggio alla Farnia. It is here that the artist captured clear and shining impressions of the surrounding landscape, creating memorable artistic representations of the hills and the countryside of the area.
The Kienerk Museum was built on the ruins of the old village prison, situated in the back portion of the municipal building. The entire building, designed by Arturo Conti* (1823-1900), was rebuilt in the 1870s and still bears the name Uffizj Pubblici. The new municipal building also housed the magistrate's courthouse, the prison, the guardian's quarters and the offices of the Carabinieri.
The collection:
The summer home of the Kienerks in Firenze was bombarded during the Second World War and a number of paintings and a chest containing Giorgio Kienerk's notes and drawings were destroyed. The works that were donated to the community by Vittoria Kienerk are part of artist's surviving personal collection, at the time of his death.
Through the years, Vittoria Kienerk devotedly lent the treasured works she had inherited from her father to important art exhibitions, so that thay could become known to the larger public. As she was aware of the artistic value of the collection, she had to decide where to preserve her father's works after her death so that they could be admired and appreciated. Vittoria was sure that she did not want to add her collection to the already great number of art works parked in the storerooms of famous italian museums. Therefore, she decided that a smaller institution could guarantee the permanent exhibition of her collection.
Due to the emotional ties connecting Giorgio Kienerk and his family with the countryside and the hills of Fauglia, and certain that her father would have approved, Vittoria decided that the best place to preserve her collection would be precisely in Fauglia.
Kienerk spent the summers of his mature years on his estate in Fauglia, where he recovered from the cold winters in Pavia, and where he spent the last years of his life. The charming, sun bathed countryside was an endless source of inspiration for this artist, who, beside painting memorable portraits of his family members, devoted himself to landscape paintings, which testify his intimate and quiet dialogue with nature.
Other works of Giorgio Kienerks were added to the museum collection after Vittoria's death (2013), and more recently, the Montella bequest complements the collection.
*The architect, from the nearby town of Livorno, owned a villa near Fauglia and designed several other buildings in the area.