
Enigmatic and Unremembered
ENIGMATIC AND UNREMEMBERED
Cristian ValentiThe oil magnate J. Paul Getty had simple rules for success: "Rise early, work hard, strike oil." The Lombard painter Ugo Celada da Virgilio learned to his own chagrin how double-edged that fine blade could be. French painter and critic Émile Bernard predicted in 1926 that he would be the bright future of Italian art, but he toiled in the shadows for the rest of his full century on this earth, eschewing the chaos and blur of the 1900s with the crystalline clarity of his portraits, nudes, and still lifes.