Camilla Guiscardi

Camilla Guiscardi Gandolfi (1806 – 9 February 1893) was an Italian painter.

Life and career Camilla Guiscardi was born in Genoa in 1806, with the surname Guasconi, She studied in Milan, first at Collegio Viale, with Ernesta Bisi, and then in Turin with Pelagio Palagi. As early as 1823, she was mentioned in the records of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts for her reproductions of works by Hayez, Correggio, Raphael (of which she redid the Madonna of Loreto with praise She participated in the Brera exhibitions from 1821 to 1840 with various works, including miniatures and drawings for lithographs, including those for the volume Portraits of Living Italian Women Who Distinguished Themselves in Science, Letters, and the Fine Arts, published by Vassalli in 1839.

Guiscardi married lawyer Emanuele Gandolfi from Voghera, from their union, Riccardo Gandolfi (Voghera, 16 February 1839 – Florence, 6 April 1920) was born, who was a renowned composer and music critic bridging the 19th and 20th centuries.

In addition to being a painter, she was also an esteemed lithographer and portraitist, especially of notable personalities in Milan and beyond, including Silvio Pellico, Carlotta Marchionni, Pompeo Marchesi, Giovanni Migliara, Teresa Benincampi, and others. An 1829 watercolor of Pompeo Marchesi is preserved at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan. In 1842, she was appointed an honorary painter to King Charles Albert of Sardinia, who commissioned her portraits for the Gallery of Daniel in the Palazzo Reale, including that of Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. From that year until 1853, she participated in the exhibitions of the Promotrice of Fine Arts in Turin with numerous works.

Information about her is available in Turin until 1865 when the Genoese Federico Alizeri wrote extensive biographical passages about her in his Notizie dei professori del disegno in Liguria (Information on the drawing professors in Liguria).