Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti Italian, 1764-1831

Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti (Turin, Italy, 1764 – Turin, Italy, 1831) 

Pietro Bagetti was born in Turin in 1764, where he received a musical education by studying composition with maestro Bernardino Gaetano Ottani, who was also a stage painter. 

Driven by an interest in architecture, he participated in a royal commission in 1792 for the design of a triumphal arch.

Meanwhile, his passion for art led him to study watercolour painting with Pietro Giacomo Palmieri.

That same year, he was appointed to the chair of topographical drawing at Reale Accademia dei Nobili. Thanks to this role, he earned the title of "royal draughtsman" by the king the following year. He was tasked with accompanying the army to Nice and Toulon to portray its deeds. 

In 1797, he was appointed master of topographical drawing in the Royal Artillery Corps.

In his role of "captain draughtsman" among the engineers-geographers, he portrayed the Napoleonic campaigns at the turn of the century.

These works have led many to accuse him of no longer being Piedmontese. Today, the watercolours are preserved in the Historical Museum of Versailles.  

He followed the Napoleonic campaigns until 1812, when illness struck during his journey with the Grand Army in Russia, prompting his return to France. Briefly able to rejoin the battlefield, his health soon necessitated a permanent return to France. 

After the fall of the empire in 1815, he returned to Turin. There, he taught topography at the Military Academy and watercolour painting at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Around 1830, he began engraving his works under the supervision of General Pelet, the director of the French war department, for the publication of the catalogue "Vues des champs de bataille".

He died in Turin in 1831.

Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)