Silvio Giulio Rotta

While his first canvases were light watercolors of genre subjects in his native city, that is, the daily life of Venetians; his later career focused on realistic depictions of the darker side of human nature, including the interior of insane asylums.

At the Exposition Universelle (1878) in Paris, he was awarded a gold medal for his painting of Costumi popolari veneziani.

[1] Another review merely describes the painter as having a Melancholic spirit and a mind tormented by artistic visions not always serene induced to depict subjects of a sorrowful and painful character.

[2] Examples of this change are the painting I forzati (prison laborers filing two by two from open-air fieldwork back to the confines of jail), which was displayed at the International Expostion of Venice, and receiving a golden medal at the Fine Arts Exposition in Budapest;[3] also Abbandoned Walls and in In the shadows (Nelle tenebre).

[4] The realist painting in earth tones depicts the inmates of a mental asylum, in a wintry courtyard during recreation, sporting in a disarray of positions or actions.