Emanuel Vincent "Emvin" Cremona (27 May 1919 – 29 January 1987) was a Maltese artist and stamp designer. He is regarded as one of the best Maltese artists of the 20th century. Cremona is known for
designing most
Maltese stamps from 1957 to the 1980s, including the stamp issue commemorating Malta's
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the st ...
from
Great Britain in 1964. He studied at the Malta School of Arts and the
Regia Accademia delle Belle Arti in
Rome. Some of his works can be found at the parish churches of
Msida
Msida ( mt, L-Imsida, it, Misida) is a harbour town in the Central Region of Malta with a population of 7, 623 (2021).
Location
The town is located just west of Valletta on the northeast coast of Malta.
The neighbouring towns of Msida are ...
and
Ħamrun
Hamrun (; ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 9,244 as of March 2014.
The people
The townspeople are traditionally known as ''Tas-Sikkina'' (literally meaning 'of the knife' or 'those who carry a knife') or as '' ...
,
Ta' Pinu
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Ta' Pinu ( mt, Santwarju Bażilika tal-Madonna ta' Pinu) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine located some from the village of Għarb on the island of Gozo, the sis ...
Sanctuary and the Chapel of the
Malta International Airport
Malta International Airport ( mt, L-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta, ) is the only airport in Malta and it serves the whole of the Maltese Islands.
It is located on the island of Malta, southwest of the Maltese capital Valletta, in the town ...
. The
World Health Organization headquarters in
Geneva and the
United Nations Headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* ...
also house paintings by Cremona.
Emvin Vincent Cremona - his Christian names were soon shortened to Emvin - was born in Valletta on May 27, 1919. Up to 1936 he attended the ''
Scuola Umberto I'' for his formal education. In 1933, he was taken to Rome where he was overwhelmed by the experience. Later he attended the School of Art, finding himself in a class that composed
Willie Apap,
Anton Inglott,
Esprit Barthet, and
Victor Diacono. Their teachers were
Edward Caruana Dingli and
Carmenu Mangion, both of a mixed classicist and Romantic temperament.
At an early age, Cremona used to participate in the annual shows of the
Malta Amateur Art Association. In 1937 he competed for the Government scholarship, placing third after Willie Apap and Anton Inglott. In spite of this setback, he was luckily able to summon enough financial assistance to proceed to Rome for a course of studies at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti under Carlo Siviero between 1938 and 1940. In Rome he felt a closeness, a spiritual kinship to Anton Inglott. The two young artists were still in Rome just before Italy entered the war in 1940 but they returned to Malta together on the last boat to reach the island in peacetime.
In 1945 he won the
Agnes Schembri Bequest, enabling him to proceed to London and Paris to deepen his studies in art. Between 1945 and 1947 he attended classes at the
Slade School of Fine Art and later he attended lessons at the Parisian
Ecole Superieur de Beaux Arts under professor
Jean Dupas
Jean Théodore Dupas (21 February 1882 – 6 September 1964) was a French painter, artist, designer, poster artist, and decorator in the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.
Life
Dupas was born in Bordeaux. He won the Prix de Rome for painting in ...
. Emvin returned to Malta in 1948. He represented the country in their first pavilion at the
Venice Biennale in 1958. He married Lilian Gatt and had four children.
See also
*
Designers of Maltese stamps
*
Postage stamps and postal history of Malta
The postal history of Malta began in the early modern period, when pre-adhesive mail was delivered to foreign destinations by privately owned ships for a fee. The earliest known letter from Malta, sent during the rule of the Order of St John, ...
References
Maltese stamp designers
Philately of Malta
1919 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Maltese painters
People from Valletta
Maltese artists
Maltese expatriates in Italy
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