Giuseppe Palanti
He was born in Milan in 1881 into a humble family. His artistic training was first at the city’s Scuola Superiore for art applied to industry (under Prof. Cavenaghi) and at the Night school for craftsmen, from 1895, and from 1898 at the painting school at the Brera Academy, where he was the pupil of Tallone, Mentessi, Bignami and Pogliaghi.
He proved to be a versatile artist, especially in his youth, when he applied a stylistic eclecticism to the decorative arts (designing textiles, ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron, metal objects, furniture), to graphics (posters and book covers), and to costumes and stage sets for La Scala opera house. In the second decade of the 20th century he worked as architect and town planner on the “garden-city” of Milano Marittima on the Adriatic coast, and was also active in the subsequent publicity campaign for the town. In addition, he devoted himself enthusiastically to salon painting, using a style derived from the scapigliatura movement.
After the war he became a well-established painter, sought after by the entrepreneurial and financial Milan middle class, who commissioned him to paint portraits, still lifes, vases of flowers, and vaporous, languid nudes, for their city houses and summer residences.
He died in Milan in 1946.
