Italian painter proves age just number in art world

An Italian painter, now 94, continues inspiring the art world with her unwavering commitment to creativity. 

Defying the limitations often associated with age, Italian painter Isabella Ducrot maintains a daily routine of painting delicate, expressive works that have earned her international acclaim—despite only seriously beginning her artistic journey in her fifties, Caliber.Az reports via Artsy. 

Her unique process, poetic themes, and recent exhibitions highlight a lifetime of resilience, discovery, and a profound connection to the beauty of the world around her.

Ducrot continues defying expectations with her unwavering dedication to painting. Every day, she walks from her Rome apartment in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj to a serene studio behind a colonnaded courtyard, where she spends her afternoons painting on Japanese paper using a brush tied to a stick. Often closing her eyes to let her hand flow freely, Ducrot describes the resulting work as a “tender image.” “I almost close my eyes, and let the hand go,” she said. “The result that comes out is a representation of that particular experience: ‘tenderness.’”

Ducrot is a beloved figure in the art world as a late bloomer—she began pursuing art seriously in her fifties and has recently gained international recognition. Her luminous, poetic paintings often feature flowers, grids, and intertwined figures, enhanced by stitched old textiles and fragments of handwriting. In 2024, her work was featured in solo exhibitions at the Consortium Museum in Dijon and galleries in London and New York, and even appeared alongside Dior’s spring/summer fashion collection.

Her latest exhibition, “Visited Lands,” at Petzel Gallery in Chelsea, showcases eight large-scale paintings of ethereal landscapes made with pigment ground from meteorites on Gampi paper, which she calls symbolic for its delicate yet strong nature. “Let’s hope that our bella terra [‘beautiful land’] should have similar qualities to the marvelous Gampi paper,” she said.

Ducrot’s journey—from wartime Naples to global travels collecting antique textiles, to beginning her artistic career later in life—illustrates a remarkable story of resilience and creative persistence. “Courage has been a kind of trance,” she reflected. “I transformed things, and the things were mostly textiles, and textiles were interesting.” This slow transformation helped her finally admit, “The result was that I had to admit to being an artist.”

Through her work, Ducrot invites us to experience the world with fresh eyes, proving that it is never too late to pursue one’s passion.

By Naila Huseynova