Background
Amisani was born on 7 December 1881 in Piazza Mercato (now Piazza Amisani) in the comune of Mede di Lomellina, near Pavia in Lombardy, northern Italy.
Amisani was born on 7 December 1881 in Piazza Mercato (now Piazza Amisani) in the comune of Mede di Lomellina, near Pavia in Lombardy, northern Italy.
He studied at the technical institute of Pavia, where he failed the technical drawing course. He then studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan under Cesare Tallone and Vespasiano Bignami.
From then on he concentrated almost exclusively on portrait-painting. His landscapes of the Italian Alps, of Rhodes and of Tunisia also attracted interest. Amisani was internationally famous in his time.
He spent several years in Argentina and Brasil, and travelled also to England, France, North Africa and to the United States.
He died in Portofino on 8 September 1941. Amisani was an important figure in his lifetime, though almost entirely forgotten today – his name is not included in the principal works of reference in the twenty-first century.
He was a close contemporary of Umberto Boccioni and of Pablo Picasso, but completely ignored currents such as Futurism and Cubism which changed the face of fine art in the twentieth century, preferring to satisfy the tastes of his clients, who were the noble, rich and the famous of his time. His reputation was for elegance and for the fresh colours of his palette.
A retrospective exhibition of his work at the Castello Sforzesco of Vigevano in the province of Pavia in 2008 was the first dedicated to him in fifty years.
Of Amisani"s work have included:
Galleria Pesaro, Milan, 1923. Egypt, Algiers and portraiture by Giuseppe Amisani, Arlington Gallery, Bond Street, London, 1927. XVII Esposizione Internazionale d"Arte, Venice, 1930.
Giuseppe Amisani, Il pittore dei Re, Castello Sforzesco, Vigevano, Pavia, Italy, 2008.
Rirì la sciantosa e le altre. Ritratti di donne nella pittura di Giuseppe Amisani (1879–1941), Galleria Civica di Bari, 2012.
