Demetrio Cosola

Demetrio Cosola was an Italian painter of Piedmontese verismo painting.

Biography

Born in San Sebastiano da Po, he lived his entire life between Chivasso, where he moved with his family at the age of seven, and Turin.
At the age of 18, he began attending the Accademia Albertina. He studied under Enrico Gamba, Andrea Gastaldi, Giovanni Tamone, and became friends with another teacher, Antonio Fontanesi.
In 1873, he began to exhibit, but initially without great success.
In 1884, he returned to the Academy, as assistant teacher first to Gastaldi, then to Pier Celestino Gilardi.
He died in February 1895 of pneumonia.
Cosola was quite a prolific painter: despite his short life, there are about 200 landscapes, about 200 portraits and about a hundred paintings of other genres. His favorite subjects were nature and the everyday life of ordinary people, frequently including children.
Among his major works, Al sole was housed in the Royal Palace of Turin, but was destroyed by a fire in 1997; Il dettato is housed in the Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art; Dolori inattesi is in Chivasso, in a private collection; La vaccinazione nelle campagne is also housed in Chivasso, in the Town Hall.