MeisterDrucke - Art Prints, Paintings & Reproductions

Artists in the Spotlight: Carlo Bossoli

The painter and lithographer Carlo Bossoli was of Swiss Italian descent. His father worked as a stonemason in Switzerland at that time. When Bossoli was 5 years old, the family moved to Odessa in the Ukraine for professional reasons. There the young Carlo received his first school education with the Order of the Capuchins. At the age of 11 he had finished school and started working in a shop for antique books and prints. During this time his interest in drawing was awakened and he made his first small sketches. Two years later he was able to get a job as assistant to the stage designer Rinaldo Nannini at the Odessa Opera House. There his artistic skills were further trained. From 1833 he sold his first own paintings. This was to be of great help to the family a few years later, as the father died in 1836, so at the age of 21 Bossoli became the sole provider for his mother, sister and their illegitimate son. The great career leap for Bossoli came when his paintings won the favour of the Russian nobility. At first, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov became aware of Bossoli and without further ado commissioned him to produce some paintings with views of Odessa. Princess Elizabeth, the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Romanov, was so impressed by the paintings that she financed Bossoli a study trip to Italy. He stayed there for a year to develop his skills. On his return to Odessa he was in great demand and received many commissions, especially from the House of Voronzow. When Bossoli's mother, whom he continued to look after, became seriously ill in 1843, they moved back to Italy at her request. They initially lived in Milan, where Bossoli rented a studio. However, his mother wished to return to her home town of Lugano. Bossoli finally granted his mother her last wish in 1848, and she died shortly afterwards, but Bossoli remained in Lugano for a few more years before moving to Turin in 1853. From there he made many trips to Scandinavia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain and Morocco. From 1859 Bossoli became famous for his depiction of the Italian War of Independence. Prince Oddone commissioned him to follow his army on their campaigns and capture them in paintings. The Prince was so taken with Bossoli's work that he appointed him "painter of their history". Bossoli fell ill shortly afterwards with a severe fever, which made it almost impossible for him to work. In his last years Bossoli was increasingly concerned with redesigning his estate in Italy along the lines of the Voronzow Palace. His second passion was to spoil his only nephew, as he himself had no children. Shortly before his death, at the age of 86, Bossoli married Adelaide De Carolis, only 21 years old. It is generally assumed that the marriage was a financial arrangement. Bossoli died of a heart attack only a year later.