Emilio Giuseppe Dossena | |
---|---|
Born |
Cavenago d'Adda, Lombardy, Italy |
December 10, 1903
Died | March 23, 1987 Milan |
Occupation | artist |
Nationality | Italian |
Relatives | Tiziano Thomas Dossena, son |
Emilio Giuseppe Dossena (December 10, 1903 – March 23, 1987) was an Italian painter who was born in Cavenago d'Adda, Italy and died in Milan, Italy. He was also known simply as Giuseppe Dossena.
He attended the Brera Academy (Milan) and the Scuola del Castello (Milan), where he formed strong friendships with Aligi Sassu, Ernesto Treccani, Guttuso, Domenico Cantatore and Umberto Lilloni. At the Scuola del Castello he won a prize for his sculpture works (a trip to Venice), but his attraction toward color made him choose painting as the medium of artistic communication. Although his tendency toward impressionism was evident from the beginning, the necessity to provide for his family forced him to dedicate only his spare time to this aspect of the arts. He therefore earned his livelihood for many years with the restoration and the decoration of villas and castles, in addition to producing frescoes for the local churches. In the residences of Pirelli, Falck, Borletti, Invernizzi, Necchi, Toscanini, Count Cicogna, Duke Gallarati Scotti, and Count Castelbarco, Emilio Giuseppe Dossena decorated, restored and painted large panels with mythological and archaic themes and battles. His works were also in the Italian Embassy in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, but were destroyed by air raids during WWII. His passion for artistic expression allowed him to retain his creative integrity, and he became a sought after impressionist, known for the sensibility of his works as much as for the dynamic strokes which characterized them. His first solo exhibit, at the Galleria Gavioli in Milan (1943), was a success with the critics and the public, and all of the paintings were purchased by collectors.
The exhibit at the galleria Hoepli in Milan (1964), and the one at the Palazzo dell’Arredamento, in Desio (1967), also achieved a good response, earning a place on the prestigious Enciclopedia dell’Arte (Edizioni SEDA, Milan). Until the mid-1950s, Dossena signed his paintings GDossena (for Giuseppe Dossena), but the signature mutated in E.G.Dossena after that period.