Emilio Gola (22 February 1851 – 21 December 1923) was an Italian Impressionist painter.

Biography

Born in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, then part of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, into a noble family, Gola was encouraged to develop his interest in art in his adolescence by his father, a dilettante painter. He graduated in industrial engineering from the

Polytechnic University of Milan The Polytechnic University of Milan (, abbreviated as PoliMi) is a university in Milan, Italy. It is the largest technical university in the country, with about 40,000 enrolled students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and higher ...

in 1873. He did not enrol at the

Brera Academy The Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (), also known as the or Brera Academy, is a state-run tertiary public academy of fine arts in Milan, Italy. It shares its history, and its main building, with the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan's main public mu ...

, but took private lessons from

Sebastiano De Albertis Sebastiano De Albertis (14 January 1828 – 29 November 1897) was an Italian painter. Biography De Albertis was born in Milan, Austrian Empire. He worked in the studios of the history painters Domenico Induno, Domenico and Gerolamo Induno and ...

. At the same time he became interested in the works of

Tranquillo Cremona Tranquillo Cremona (10 April 1837 – 10 June 1878) was an Italians, Italian painter. His paintings have a windswept style, lacking the linearity of Francesco Hayez and other academics. His technique recalls the ''pittura de tocco e di macchia'' ...

and

Daniele Ranzoni Daniele Ranzoni (1843 in Intra, Novara – 1889 in Intra, Novara) was an Italian painter of second half of the 19th century. A leading painter of the Milanese Scapigliatura, Ranzoni is also considered as the first of the Italian Divisionists. ...

. His wealthy family background enabled him to make a series of visits to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

where he encountered the work of foreign artists. Gola made his artistic début at the Brera Annual Exhibition in 1879 with a ''Study from Life'' and ''Head: Study from Life''. His early work was already noted for its strong colour combinations and vigorous brushwork, as in the portrait of ''Contessa Gola, Mother of the Artist'' (c. 1882). Gola participated regularly in national exhibitions, but obtained his greatest official recognition at the European level. By the 1880s he was an esteemed portrait who depicted women of the Milanese nobility in their fashionable, worldly dimension but with a vigorously naturalistic approach. His portraits were accompanied by a rich repertoire of views of Milan and the countryside of

Brianza Brianza (, ) is a geographical, historical and cultural area of Italy, at the foot of the Alps, in the northwest of Lombardy, between Milan and Lake Como. Geography Brianza extends from the Canzo area, North of Monza (approximately ...

in bright colours that were to constitute his stylistic hallmark. Active in the region of

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, he focused in his late period on seascapes distinguished by great formal synthesis and expressive intensity. One of his pupils was Alberto Malaspina.Istituto Matteucci
biography.

Work

Gola’s oeuvre can be divided principally by subject-matter: landscapes with figures, mostly executed in Brianza, such as ''Washerwoman'' (1898;

Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan The Galleria d'Arte Moderna is a modern art museum in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the Villa Reale, at Via Palestro 16, opposite the Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli. The collection consists largely of Italian and Eur ...

) and ''Landscape: The First Thaw'' (1892; priv. col.); the Milanese canals (''St. Christopher’s Canal'', c. 1890; Milan, Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano); seascapes, particularly of

Alassio Alassio (Ligurian: Arasce or Arasci) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Savona situated in the western coast of Liguria, Northern Italy, approximately from the French border. Alassio is known for its natural and scenic views ...

and the

Venetian lagoon The Venetian Lagoon (; ) is an enclosed bay of the Adriatic Sea, in northern Italy, in which the city of Venice is situated. Its name in the Italian and Venetian languages, ' (cognate of Latin ' ), has provided the English name for an enclosed, ...

(''Beach at Alassio'', 1915–18; Milan, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Milan); and portraits (''Marchesa Emilia Sommi Picenardi'', c. 1900 , Rome,

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna The ("National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art"), also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art museum in Rome. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contemporary ar ...

). Gola was influenced by the work of the Scapigliati, particularly by their use of juxtaposed or superimposed brushstrokes to attain certain effects of light and colour. However, his subject-matter was different, his colours more brilliant, his brushwork freer, occasionally virtually ignoring form, and at times his figures seem carelessly positioned on the canvas. At his most successful, however, he could produce such splendidly original works as his several interpretations (in oil and watercolour) of the theme ''Washerwomen at Mondonico'' (e.g. ex-Chiesa priv. col., Milan).

Selected paintings

File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Gola Emilio, Lavandaie sul Naviglio.jpg, ''Washerwomen along the Naviglio'' (c. 1894-99) File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Gola Emilio, Meriggio.jpg, ''Meriggio'' (1922) File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Gola Emilio, Sulla spiaggia di Alassio.jpg, ''Sulla spiaggia di Alassio'' (1917) File:El Naviglio de Milán - Emilio Gola.jpg, ''The Naviglio of Milan'' File:Emilio Gola.jpg, ''Seaside'' File:Emilio Gola Donna di profilo.jpg, ''Young woman'' File:Emilio Gola Blick auf den Naviglio.jpg, ''View of the Naviglio'' (1923)

References

Bibliography

* Elena Lissoni
Emilio Gola
online catalogu
Artgate
by

Fondazione Cariplo Fondazione Cariplo is a charitable foundation in Milan, Italy. It was created in December 1991 when the Amato law, Law no. 218 of 30 July 1990, came into force. Under this law, saving banks were required to separate into a not-for-profit foun ...

, 2010, CC BY-SA (source for the first revision of this article).

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gola, Emilio 1851 births 1923 deaths 19th-century Italian painters 19th-century Italian male artists Italian male painters 20th-century Italian painters Painters from Milan 20th-century Italian male artists