Michele Cascella

Michele Cascella (7 September 1892 – 31 August 1989) was an Italian artist. Primarily known for his oil paintings and watercolours, he also worked in ceramics, lithography, and textiles. He exhibited regularly at the Venice Biennale from 1924 until 1942, and his works are owned by major museums in Italy and Europe, including Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome.

Biography

Family and early years He was born in Ortona a Mare. His father, Basilio Cascella, who was a painter, engraver, ceramist, lithographer and illustrator, was his first and most influential teacher. Before Michele was born, he lived and worked in Naples, Milan, Turin, Venice, London and Palermo. In 1895, Basilio moved the family from Ortona to Pescara. The Pescara city council gave Basilio a piece of land to build a chromolithographic laboratory and art studio. This building today is the site of the Museo Civico "Basilio Cascella". It holds more than 500 works belonging to three generations of the Cascella family. Most of the works are Basilio's, the others are of his sons Tommaso, Michele, and Gioacchino and of the sons of Tommaso, Andrea and Pietro, who became well known sculptors. In 1899, Basilio began publishing the magazine L'illustrazione abruzzese, then L'illustrazione meridionale and finally La Grande Illustrazione. Among the collaborators to these publications were some of the most important literary figures of the times, such as Gabriele d'Annunzio, Luigi Pirandello, Umberto Saba, Gennaro Finamore, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Sibilla Aleramo, Matilde Serao, Grazia Deledda, Ada Negri, Guido Gozzano and Giovanni Pascoli.

Michele Cascella left school early, owing to bad results, and began to work in his father's chromolithographic laboratory in Pescara. He was involved in the various lithographic processes of transfers and proofs. Meanwhile, Basilio had Michele copy the drawings of the masters (Leonardo, Pisanello, Botticelli, and Donatello) or details of mouths and noses which the father prepared specifically for Michele to practice over and over again. Soon Basilio would send Michele and Tommaso alone, at dawn, to the shores of the Pescara River and the surrounding hills or to the Majella to study the scenery from close by and interpret the language of nature.

When Basilio felt his sons were ready to show their work, he shifted his role from shop master to organizer and promoter of their art. Michele had now been out of school and working for his father for almost five years. Their first show was held in 1907 in Milan, far from their provincial background. There was talk of enfants prodiges. Michele was only 15 years old.

Career Michele Cascella sold his first painting privately in 1908 and had his first exhibition in Paris the following year. His technique mainly consisted in the use of pastels.

In 1965, while in Ortona, the artist dedicated a painting to Thomas the Apostle, which was donated to the Pontiff Paolo VI.

From 1969 he spent much of his time in the countryside of Colle di Val d'Elsa (province of Siena) with his second wife, Isabel Lane Cascella. He painted many Tuscan landscapes during this period.

The artist died at the age of 96 in Milan and was buried in Ortona. In 2003 he was featured in the collective exhibition "De Chirico et la peinture italienne de l'entre-deux guerres" (De Chirico and Italian Painting of the Interwar Period) at the Museum of Lodève.

Style and legacy Michele Cascella was a very congenial and humane person, as well as a tenacious worker. The techniques he used were pastels, pencil and pen and ink drawings, oils, watercolors, ceramics, lithography and textiles. His most frequent subjects were the landscapes of Abruzzi, locations all over Italy, Portofino, Paris, London, New York, California, Mexico, Hawaii, Tuscany; he also painted flowers, portraits and still life. In 1972 and again in 1980 the Comune of Milan gave him a gold medal of merit. In 1975 Michele became an honorary citizen of Portofino. In 1977 the city of Ortona dedicated to him the Pinacoteca Comunale. In 1979, the Academy of Art Dino Scalabrino of Montecatini Terme gave Cascella the Life of artist 1979 prize.

Museum collections

These museums hold Cascella's work.

Belgium , Brussels

France Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris

Italy

Abruzzo Basilio Cascella Civic Museum, Pescara , Pescara , Ortona Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo, L'Aquila

Campania Museo d'arte – MdAO, Avellino

Emilia Romagna Galleria d'arte moderna Ricci Oddi, Piacenza

Lazio Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Rome Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

Liguria , Savona

Lombardy Art collections of Fondazione Cariplo, Milan , Milan

Piedmont , Turin Museo Novarese di Arte, Novara

Veneto Museo d'arte moderna Rimoldi, Cortina d'Ampezzo

Luxembourg National Museum of History and Art, Luxembourg

United Kingdom Victoria and Albert Museum, London

United States De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, California