Edoardo Francesco Bossoli

Francesco Edoardo Bossoli was born in 1830 and was initiated into the art of painting by his uncle Carlo, a famous landscape and history painter. A shy and reserved soul, he studied various disciplines as an autodidact, and became passionate about philosophy, music, the history of religions and mountaineering.

The legacy of Carlo Bossoli and an iron partnership

The professional bond with his uncle is very close, so much so that the pictorial identity of the two artists disappears. In some canvases, in fact, the hand of both is present: drawings by Francesco Edoardo serving as the basis for paintings by Carlo and vice versa. The uncle in a paternal spirit trains his nephew, leaving him his legacy as his last pupil. They often travelled together, jotting down in their notebooks sketches of numerous scenarios that would later be found in their future works, such as views of Lake Lugano, the Alps, the Monte Rosa chain or the view from Monte Generoso. Franceso Edoardo’s painting, like that of his uncle, is strongly linked to drawing and the study of colour.
His exhibition debut took place at Brera in 1845 with two works depicting The French steamboat Le Gomer and The American liner The Powerful.

Town Squares through the Tradition of Veneto Vedutism

His production is mostly dedicated to views of town squares or panoramas of the Italian mountains. In 1851 he presented Chiesa di San Pietro a Riva in Canton Ticino at the Turin Exhibition, at the following edition he exhibited two works Corso di Porta Orientale in Milan and Interior of Milan Cathedral; and in 1857 he participated with Parte della Piazzetta in Venice, Parte degli avanzi delle forzze genovesi a Balaclava, Vista generale della valle di Susa and La riva degli Schiavoni in Venice.
At the Promotrice in Genoa in 1858, he presented Piazzetta San Marco and Panorama of London. In his city views, the artist follows in the tradition of Venetian vedutismo, a faithful capture and investigation of urban views, as objectively as possible. In these panoramas, the painter also immortalises numerous people caught in contemporary dress that testify to 19th century traditions and stories, as in the painting Palazzo Madama in Turin or the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Venice in which members of the Venetian aristocracy, commoners and in the right-hand corner two men dressed in Turkish attire appear, documenting the lagoon city’s relationship with the East.

Mountains as paintings from life

Given his passion for mountaineering, some of his most important works depict impressive Alpine panoramas that he executed for the CAI, the Italian Alpine Club, such as the eight oil paintings on cardboard made by the artist depicting a pair of pendants of panoramas taken from Corno Stella, four views with mountains and villages, and two landscapes depicting waterfalls in the Bergamo valleys.
There is none of the romanticism of the 19th century in the painter’s views; they are faithful representations from life that go beyond idealism and romantic symbolism. Edoardo Francesco Bossoli represents the mountain through his personal knowledge of it as a hiker, not on a sentimental level.
Some canvases with mountainous subjects also appeared in national exhibitions such as the Milan Exhibition of 1872 in which he participated with Panorama of the Alps, taken from the hills above Turin and Panorama of Lake Lugano, taken from the top of Monte di S. Salvatore; and he exhibited Panorama of Superga in 1874 at the Turin Exhibition. He disappeared in 1912 at the age of eighty-two.

Emanuela Di Vivona