Mario Grixoni was born into a noble family in Genoa, Italy in 1879. At a young age his drawings attracted the attention of Giacomo Grosso, painter and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, and in 1902 he moved to London, where he received many portrait commissions and became part of London's high-society. Known as 'Grix', he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Arts and held a regular salon for the artistic and literary elite at his London home.
Painter Mario Grixoni was born into a noble family in Genoa, Italy in 1879. His ancestry included Italian artists of renown, and at a young age his drawings attracted the attention of Giacomo Grosso, portraitist painter and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. The son and nephew of senior officers in the army and navy, Grixoni initially embarked on a naval career, although he later decided to devote himself solely to painting.
In 1902 he arrived in London with little money and three young children to support. He exhibited early on with the Royal Society of Miniature Painters' and his work in their Twentieth Annual Exhibition, held in the midst of war in 1915, was mentioned in both The Studio and Connoisseur. He became a close friend of painters John Singer Sargent and William Orpen and received many portrait commissions from London notables and the aristocracy during his career in England, including Admiral Edward Evans and Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart. Evans’ portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1940 and singled out in The Irish Times, which noted: ‘The subject, in full naval dress, presents a fine figure, and the artist has achieved an excellent portrait (Irish Times 1940, p. 5). It was also reproduced on the front cover of the Field magazine on 15 June 1940. Grixoni also realised portraits for the municipality of Dundee, Scotland which were very well received, both by the city authorities and the Scottish Press.
Grixoni was well-known in London high-society, as reported in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle, Illinois, 1925: 'One of the features of London's multi-coloured and cosmopolitan social life is the cocktail Sunday matinees of Count Grixoni. Grixoni is a real count, an Italian of old lineage and a rather celebrated portrait painter. Everybody worth knowing in London counts ‘Grix’ as his friend. Once every month on a Sunday morning, the social, artistic and literary elite of London foregathers at Grix’s handsome house. Usually some celebrated singer or virtuoso gives a solo or two, and then there are cocktails and general conversation. People go there more religiously on a Grix Sunday than they do to church’.
In 1941 Grixoni unsuccessfully applied to the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), a British government agency established in 1939 to compile a comprehensive artistic record of Britain throughout the war. A frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, he also showed at the Salon de Paris. He was a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, St. Johns Wood Arts Club, the Council of the Pastel Society and Council of the Arts Club. Mario Grixoni died in London, England in 1946. His portraits can be found in UK public collections, including in Scotland's Perth Museum and Art Gallery and the University of St Andrews, and in Kendal Town Hall, among others in England.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Mario Grixoni]
Publications related to [Mario Grixoni] in the Ben Uri Library