Roméo AGLIETTI

Roméo Aglietti comes from a family of Italian artists. His ancestor is the sculptor Luigi Agliati, born in Milan in 18164. His father, Pascal Aglietti, originally from Castiglion Fiorentino, tailor in Algiers and also a violinist. His mother, Angeline Filippi, comes from a very old Corsican family, the Palazzi family (from which the mayor of Corte from 1882 to 1892, Charles Xavier Palazzi, came). Pieraggi's family came from Genoa, then settled in Corte 1.

In Algiers, Roméo Aglietti was three years old when his father died suddenly at Mustapha Pacha hospital. His mother remarried in 1882 to Pierre Mahoudeau, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris who became, in 1910, professor at the Society of Anthropology of Paris. Roméo Aglietti is entrusted to his maternal family, the Palazzi, and grows up in Corte. A solitary child, he took refuge in drawing1. It was in the company of Luca Armanie, painter, that he discovered painting in the workshop of Gustavo Simoni, an Italian painter based in Tlemcen5 and Rome. It was in the company of Gustavo Simoni's eldest son, Paolo, that he continued his apprenticeship in the Florentine School received by his father's Aglietti family from Castiglion1.

In 1898, he studied at the school of decorative arts at Beaux-Arts de Paris, located on Boulevard Saint-Germain, where he was a student of Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse. When his mother died, Roméo Aglietti was 16 years old. He continued his studies in Paris under the tutelage of Father Perfetini6. In 1902, he was at the Higher School of Fine Arts in Algiers

In 1904, he married Julie Anglade in Tunis then, from 1905 to 1906, he made a study trip with his young wife to Egypt5, first to Cairo then to Alexandria. After the birth of their first child, they returned to Paris in 1907 then to Algiers in 19097. In 1910, Roméo Aglietti moved to the heights of Algiers5, to Village Victor, on the hill, near the Notre-Dame basilica -from Africa5. From the painter's studio, the view overlooks the sea. In his Moorish-style villa, Aglietti receives his friends, artists and patrons8.

In 1920, his trip to Spain became an important step in his career. Going to Madrid then to Andalusia via Cadiz, Granada and Seville, he was fascinated by the Alhambra5 palace.

On his return, he exhibited for the first time in 1923 in the city of Oran then, in 1924, in Algiers9. In French Algeria, Aglietti frequented the artists and men of letters Robert Randau, Jean Pomier, Marcello Fabri and de Pouvreau Baldy10. Due to his well-established relationship with the Governor General of Algeria Maurice Viollette, it was on his initiative that during 1924 he had the idea of founding an artistic group. It was out of a real need that the first salon of the Artistic Union of North Africa was born in 19253. Its head office was located at 2 rue Carnot in Saint-Eugène (Algiers).

The Artistic Union is an event which takes place in the Pierre Bordes Hall from 1925 to 1961. The show is annual and placed under the high patronage of the general government of Algeria. The participation of exhibitors increases each year. A jury is made up of people whose notoriety is too high to be able to raise discussions of principle or antagonisms between people. Among the members of the jury, we include Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse, Étienne Dinet, Paolo Simoni, Alfred Loth 4 and Maurice Bouviolle.