Rinaldo Geleng painter, Roman portraitist (1920–2003)

Geleng studied at the San Michele Institute where he took a painting and drawing course.

In 1939, he worked as a caricaturist and cartoonist for the satirical magazine Marc’Aurelio. He met Federico Fellini in this period.

This friendship afforded him chances to draw caricatures of the habitués of the fashionable cafés in Rome and make portraits of variety show actors of the day: Rascel, Macario, Wanda Osiris, Rudi Clair, Dante Maggio, Nino Taranto, etc.

His distinctive drawing style started to earn him fame in Rome.

He moved to Paris from 1950 to 1959.

Here he became the artistic director of the Opera Mundi and founded a school for illustrators and draftsmen.

In Paris he saw Federico Fellini again, there to present the premiere of the film La Strada.

During his Parisian years, he was enchanted by the work of master artists the caliber of Van Gogh and Rembrandt. The Impressionists and their analytical view left a mark on his artistic development.

Some of the portraits he did in Paris and in Rome right after he returned seem influenced by the full brushstrokes of the Paris school, Soutine’s compositional fusion, and Modigliani’s expressive analytic approach. In this period, Geleng came back to his first love, painting and portraiture.

Back in Italy, in 1959, he worked for the magazines of the Mondadori Group, designing the cover of Arianna and illustrations for Grazia, 1959–1962.

He also worked in movie advertising. One of his most famous pieces is the 1960 Wührer Beer ad.

Geleng was the artist behind many paintings on Fellini’s sets: from the re-enactments of ancient Rome in the film Roma, to the Casanova picture gallery, and sets of Amarcord.

In 1964, his friend Fellini commissioned his portrait from Geleng. In 1971, he left his position at the head of the Warner Brother’s press office to return to his original passion: painting and portraiture, to which he dedicated himself almost exclusively in this period.

In his gallery of portraits are many famous and regular people, each in the most fitting setting, attuned to their personality and character.