Born in
Siena in Italy to an Italian aristocrat, Marchese Ferdinando Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli, his full name was Girolamo Pieri Pecci Ballati Nerli. The fourth of six children, he was not a 'Marchese' as he was sometimes styled, or a 'Count', but a 'patrizio di Siena', a minor distinction marking the great antiquity of his family. His father married Henrietta Medwin, an Englishwoman. Her father
Thomas Medwin was a minor literary figure in
Byron's circle; Medwin was a second cousin on both parents' side of
Shelley. Girolamo studied art in
Florence under
Antonio Ciseri and
Giovanni Muzzioli and was a younger member of the Italian
Macchiaioli school, the 'patch painters', an Italian movement anticipating French
impressionism. He migrated to Australia in 1885, first settling in
Melbourne, where he shared a studio with fellow Italian Ugo Catani and the Portuguese-born
Artur Loureiro. Upon relocating to
Sydney in 1886, Nerli exhibited with the
Art Society of New South Wales (ASNSW). He caused a sensation there later that year with his exhibition of paintings of
bacchanalian orgies, and at an 1888 show his portrait of actress
Myra Kemble attracted much attention. The free brushwork and unfinished appearance of his works were as exciting to connoisseurs as the subjects were to the general public. Nerli also joined the ASNSW's
en plein air sketch club. It was likely through this club that he met the young painter
Charles Conder, who was later acknowledged as having been influenced by Nerli's style. Conder subsequently became a leading member of the impressionistic
Heidelberg School movement alongside
Tom Roberts and
Arthur Streeton. The degree to which Nerli influenced the movement as a whole is a matter of contention, but his "delicacy of touch, decorative placement, and choice of subject matter" were shared by Conder and Streeton in particular, and he is known to have visited their "artists' camps" in both Melbourne and Sydney. Late in 1889 he went to
Dunedin in New Zealand for the
New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition where he encountered the artist
Alfred Henry O'Keeffe. He went back to Australia in 1890. , 1892In 1893 Nerli returned to Dunedin where he set himself up as a private art teacher. 'Signor Nerli' remained in the city just over three years bringing, new vigour to the circle presided over by
W.M. Hodgkins and a cosmopolitan glamour to Dunedin's second, bohemian circle of younger painters. He taught
Frances Hodgkins, inspired
O'Keeffe and reportedly had an affair with
Grace Joel, a young woman artist he may also have known in Melbourne. In 1893 Nerli was elected to the council of the Otago Art Society and in 1894 set up the Otago Art Academy with J.D. Perrett and L.W. Wilson in Dunedin's
Octagon. Its life classes employing a professional nude model were so successful that the government run Dunedin School of Art had to hire Nerli for the same purpose. It seems this was the means by which painting from the nude was inaugurated at the school. Late in 1896 Nerli left Dunedin suddenly, stayed briefly in
Wellington and went on to
Auckland. He opened a studio there and exhibited at the Auckland Society of Arts in April 1897. He then eloped with Marie Cecilia Josephine Barron whom he married in
Christchurch New Zealand, in March 1898. She was a Spinster of 23, and he said he was a Bachelor and Artist of 38; he gave his name as Girolamo Pieri Ballati Pecci Nerli, but the surname in the index was "Pecci". The couple immediately sailed for Australia settling first in Sydney and then Melbourne. Nerli and his wife returned to Europe in 1904 where the artist spent the rest of his life, struggling against declining fortunes, between London and
Nervi,
Genoa in Italy. He died childless in Nervi on 24 June 1926. == Legacy ==