Background
Casorati was born in Novara, Italy, on December 4, 1883. He was the son of Francis Casorati, an officer in permanent service, and Caterina Borgarelli.
Via 8 Febbraio 1848, 2, 35122 Padova PD, Italy
Casorati studied law at the University of Padua until 1906.
Felice Casorati.
Turin, Italy
Felice Casorati and Daphne Maugham, Turin (ca. 1950).
Casorati was born in Novara, Italy, on December 4, 1883. He was the son of Francis Casorati, an officer in permanent service, and Caterina Borgarelli.
Felice Casorati showed his passion for music at an early age. However, he abandoned his study of piano after a serious illness and became interested in art. In order to please his mother, Casorati studied law at the University of Padua until 1906.
Casorati’s ambition to be a painter was confirmed in 1907 when his artwork was included in the Venice Biennale. The paintings he produced in the early period of his career were naturalistic in style. Later he became influenced by the famed Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, who turned him toward a more visionary approach.
In 1915 Felice Casorati held his first solo exhibition at the Rome Secession III. There he presented several paintings and the first of his sculptures in varnished terracotta. His military service in World War I ceased his career as a painter. It lasted until his discharge from the army after the death of the artist's father in 1917.
In 1918 he lived with his mother and two sisters. After World War I, he became a leading figure in the conservative Return to Order movement, calling for a rejection of the avant-garde in favor of more traditional art. Although many critics found his work too cold, and academic, Felice Casorati achieved international recognition. Casorati drew his inspiration from the study of Renaissance masters, particularly Piero della Francesca. In 1922 he created his famous portrait entitled Silvana Cenni.
Casorati was briefly arrested in 1923 for his involvement with an anti-Fascist group. Subsequently, Casorati avoided antagonizing the regime. In the year 1923, the artist opened his studio in Turin, teaching Quinto Martini, an Italian artist, and painters of the Gruppo dei Sei (Group of Six). In 1925, Daphne Mabel Maugham became one of his students, later Casorati also taught his wife.
Among his later students was the Italian painter Enrico Accatino. His Work Carità di San Martino (1939) is now in Museo cantonale d'arte of Lugano. After 1930 the rigor of Casorati's style softened and his palette brightened. He continued to exhibit widely in his later years. He was also involved in stage design.
Untitled
Figura su fondo celeste
Nudo allo specchio con cagnolino
La donna e l'armatura
Notturno
Fanciulla addormentata nello studio
Ritratto di Anna Maria de Lisi
Girl on a red carpet
Maternità con le uova
Scodelle
Santina
Silvana Cenni
Dreaming of Pomegranates
Vendemmiatrici
Ragazza in verde
L'attesa
The Lemons
Casella
Beethoven
Vocation
Untitled
Nudo sdraiato
Concerto
Ritratto di Riccardo Gualino
Two girls
Meriggio
Bozzetto per un'opera
Daphne at Paravola
Imparare
Eccolo
Quotations: "In taking up, against me, the old polemic of classicism and romanticism, people rail against intellectualized and scholastic order, accuse my art of being insincere, and wilfully academic - in a word, of being neoclassical. ... since my art is born, so to speak, from within, and never has its source in changing "impressions", it is quite natural that ... static forms, and not the fluid images of passion, should be reflected in my works."