Felice Casorati
Felice Casorati (Novara, 4 December 1883 – Turin, 1 March 1963) was an Italian painter; from the late 1910s he lived in Turin, in the house-studio on Via Mazzini, where he trained a generation of painters and directed the Accademia Albertina.[1][2] The GAM in Turin holds the most important collection of his works.[3]
Before Turin
He made his debut at the Venice Biennale in 1907 with a portrait of his sister Elvira, lived in Naples from 1908 to 1911 and then in Verona.[2] He settled in Turin after his father's death, in the autumn of 1917 according to MuseoTorino, or in 1918 according to the Treccani.[1][2]
The 1920s
In 1922 he signed the appeal published in «Rivoluzione Liberale», and in 1923 Piero Gobetti dedicated the first monograph to him, «Felice Casorati pittore».[1] For the industrialist Riccardo Gualino he painted family portraits and, together with Alberto Sartoris, designed the private theatre, inaugurated on 27 April 1925.[2] He opened a free painting school on Via Galliari, from which the Sei di Torino emerged, and in 1925 he co-founded, with Rigotti, Sartoris and Sobrero, the «Antonio Fontanesi» Society of Fine Arts.[1][4] At the 1924 Biennale he had a solo room presented by Lionello Venturi.[2]
The mature years
At the Accademia Albertina he held the chair of interior design in 1928 and that of painting in 1941, and he was its director in 1952 and president in 1954.[2][1] In 1937 he won the Carnegie Prize in Pittsburgh, and in 1955 he took part in the first Documenta in Kassel.[2][1] He married the painter Daphne Maugham, his student, and bought a house in Pavarolo, on the hills of Turin.[1] In 2025 Palazzo Reale in Milan dedicated a retrospective to him.[3]
Related articles: Sei di Torino
Pages linking here
Sources
- MuseoTorino
- Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani —
- Comune di Milano — 14 February 2025
- Treccani