Giovanni Battista Todeschini Biography
Giovanni Battista Todeschini (Lecco, 9 June 1857 – Milan, 1938) was an Italian painter. Giambattista Todeschini was born in Lecco and is the nephew of the scientist Antonio Stoppani. Born into drawing, he began to attend the Brera Academy in Milan, which however he soon abandoned, preferring to continue his activity as a self-taught artist. Traveling for several years throughout Italy he completed his education also through the study of the ancients. In 1878 he made his debut in Florence presenting a Lombard landscape painted from life. Starting from the 1980s, his characteristic figure emerged as an interpreter of the landscapes of the Lecco area, his hometown. He participates in the exhibitions in Milan, Turin and Genoa, always with landscapes and studies from life taken not only from the surroundings of Lake Lecco, but also from that of Como and Liguria. From the mid-1980s he began to assiduously dedicate himself to portraiture, with a series of studies and preparatory drawings. He is committed to portraying humble workers, farmers, women of the people in material paintings for the use of rich and full-bodied color. Also from this period are the portraits of Ermenegildo Castiglioni, for the Picture Gallery of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, and that of his uncle Antonio Stoppani in the Civic Museums of Lecco. With Giuseppe Mentessi he worked in the loggia of the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan, carrying out the fresco decorations (which were later lost during the renovations of the building in 1920). He continued to exhibit throughout the twenties and again for part of the thirties. He died in Milan in 1938. He was the father of Piero (1888-1945) and Lucio (1892-1969), also painters.
