Federico Ashton
Born in Milan in 1836 to an English father and a Fiorentine mother, Federico Ashton attended the Brera Academy, where he was taught by Gaetano Fasanotti. What he learned best from the school of Fasanotti was to portray reality, which he softened with a romantic, visionary taste.
He began quite early to paint and exhibit his pictures, mostly landscapes, which at once enjoyed considerable success. He found his ideal landscape in the Ossola valleys and nearby Switzerland, where he was taught by the famous Alexandre Calame. His artistic research took him all over the Alps, but the majestic Monte Rosa remained his favourite mountain.
He spent much of the 70s in Rome, perfecting his painting style and teaching the daughters of the aristocracy; during the next ten years he often stayed on Lake Maggiore, coming into contact with exponents of Lombard naturalism and also directing a school of painting in Pallanza.
From 1892 he settled in Domodossola, a starting point for excursions into the valleys of the Ossola and Switzerland, where he painted valleys, mountain pastures, villages, passes, glaciers.
In 1904 he was killed falling into a gully near the Simplon Pass.
