Maria Colzani - Milan 1879 - Gornate Olona (VA) 1977,...
Maria Colzani - Milan 1879 - Gornate Olona (VA) 1977, "The Sleeping Woman" - Pastel on paper, 60x100 cm - Maria Colzani was an Italian painter born in Milan in 1879 and who died in Gornate Olona, in the province of Varese, in 1977. Her work is part of the Lombard painting tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following a trajectory that moves from the figure to the landscape. Born into a Milanese family of small-scale industrialists, she trained at Filippo Carcano’s Free Academy of Painting. She exhibited regularly at the Permanente in Milan beginning in 1899, and in 1900 she presented two pastels, *Nude* and *Spring*, at the fourth Brera Triennial, participating that same year in the National Exhibition in Verona.In the following years, she participated in the 1906 National Exhibition in Milan, the women’s exhibitions in Turin in 1910–11 and 1913, at the Lyceum Femminile in Milan, at the Milanese Artistic Society in 1918, and at the Umanitaria in 1919. In Turin, she also received an award for her caricature. One of her paintings, created inside Milan’s gasometer and depicting workers extracting incandescent coke, was exhibited at the “Famiglia Artistica” and deemed worthy of the Museum of Labor.Her early work focused on the figure—particularly children—and portraits of family members; later, under the influence of Leonardo Bazzaro and Emilio Gola, she turned to landscape painting, adopting an increasingly vigorous and intense style marked by a sincere quest for the essence of nature.During the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, she withdrew from official exhibitions due to her staunch socialism, returning to exhibit in the 1950s. She continued to paint into her later years, despite being nearly blind, and also wrote poems in the Milanese dialect. In 1969, she moved to Gornate Olona, where she died in 1977.
[ translate ]Maria Colzani - Milan 1879 - Gornate Olona (VA) 1977, "The Sleeping Woman" - Pastel on paper, 60x100 cm - Maria Colzani was an Italian painter born in Milan in 1879 and who died in Gornate Olona, in the province of Varese, in 1977. Her work is part of the Lombard painting tradition of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, following a trajectory that moves from the figure to the landscape. Born into a Milanese family of small-scale industrialists, she trained at Filippo Carcano’s Free Academy of Painting. She exhibited regularly at the Permanente in Milan beginning in 1899, and in 1900 she presented two pastels, *Nude* and *Spring*, at the fourth Brera Triennial, participating that same year in the National Exhibition in Verona.In the following years, she participated in the 1906 National Exhibition in Milan, the women’s exhibitions in Turin in 1910–11 and 1913, at the Lyceum Femminile in Milan, at the Milanese Artistic Society in 1918, and at the Umanitaria in 1919. In Turin, she also received an award for her caricature. One of her paintings, created inside Milan’s gasometer and depicting workers extracting incandescent coke, was exhibited at the “Famiglia Artistica” and deemed worthy of the Museum of Labor.Her early work focused on the figure—particularly children—and portraits of family members; later, under the influence of Leonardo Bazzaro and Emilio Gola, she turned to landscape painting, adopting an increasingly vigorous and intense style marked by a sincere quest for the essence of nature.During the twenty-year period of Fascist rule, she withdrew from official exhibitions due to her staunch socialism, returning to exhibit in the 1950s. She continued to paint into her later years, despite being nearly blind, and also wrote poems in the Milanese dialect. In 1969, she moved to Gornate Olona, where she died in 1977.
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