Sveva Caetani, “Their World,” 1982, watercolour on paper, 42" × 32.3" (part of “Recapitulation,” courtesy of Caetani Cultural Centre Society)
Italian-Canadian artist Sveva Caetani dreamed of showing her art in Rome, the city where she was born but hadn’t seen since childhood.
Her wish will be realized this fall when an exhibition of her paintings, Recapitulation, will be at MAXXI — National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome, Italy.
The exhibition will be on view Oct. 3, 2025 through Jan. 4, 2026.
Caetani’s life reads like a movie script. Born into a noble Italian family in Rome in 1917, she moved with her parents to Vernon, British Columbia in 1921; her father was a radical socialist and at the time, Italy was a fascist state.
Her father died in 1935 and Caetani’s griefstricken mother forbade her from making art or leaving the family home.
When her mother died in 1960, Caetani blossomed, painting and teaching at Charles Bloom Secondary in Lumby.
Sveva Caetani (photo by Heidi Thompson)
And she painted Recapitulation, a series of 56 watercolours, between 1975 and 1992. The series draws on Dante’s Divine Comedy and tells the story of Caetani’s life.
When Caetani died in 1994, she left her estate to the City of Vernon and her artwork to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. And her home was turned into the Caetani Centre, an arts and culture centre.
The centre has been working with MAXXI in Rome for close to two years, to turn her work into her first international exhibition.
“We are thrilled that it’s finally happening,” said Laisha Rosnau, the Caetani Centre's executive director. “Italy was central to Sveva’s family history and personal identity — reflected in her memories, writing, and artwork. Hosting her first international show in the country of her birth is a remarkable tribute to her legacy.”
According to the news release, “MAXXI curator Chiara Ianeselli visited Vernon in March 2025 to research Caetani’s extensive watercolour series and other personal works. Ianeselli also met with local artists, people who knew Caetani and City of Vernon officials.
“This exhibition symbolically returns Sveva to her birthplace through a visionary body of work that is only now receiving the recognition it so richly deserves,” said Ianeselli.
“Thanks to a unique collaboration between Canadian and Italian institutions, this long-overdue tribute brings her poetic and powerful legacy to light.”
Source: Caetani Centre
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