Luigi Bolongaro
Born in Stresa in 1874, he attended the Accademia Albertina of Turin from 1887 to 1894, where his teachers included Pier Celestino Gilardi and Giacomo Grosso.
In 1896 he went to Bulgaria, where for the next three years he taught drawing and calligraphy in two boys’ high schools. In 1898 the Bulgarian government bought one of his paintings for the National Museum of Sofia and commissioned five gouaches from him for an anthological album to mark Bulgarian independence.
The following year Bolongaro returned to Italy and settled in Varzo in the Ossola.
Between 1901 and 1014 he exhibited in Turin, Venice, Novara, Genoa, Milan, Vercelli, Stresa, and Intra. His painting, especially his landscapes (sometimes with figures) of Lake Maggiore and Varzo, is characterised by bright colours applied in streaks and blotches, closely reminiscent of Divisionist technique. He was also an excellent portrait and figure painter.
He died in 1915 in Pozzuoli.
In 1982 the Museo del Paesaggio held a retrospective exhibition of Bolongaro’s work, which revealed a striking artistic personality, up to then quite unknown.
