Achille Tominetti
( Milano 1848 - Miazzina 1916
)
Achille Tominetti was born
in Milan in 1848; his parents, who earned their living by
selling milk, were from Miazzina, a small village high above
Lake Maggiore.
He studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, enrolling in 1866
in the academy’s Landscape School, under the guidance of Luigi
Riccardi. During the three years of the course he became
friendly with the painter Eugenio Gignous, with whom he also
formed an artistic bond.
Economic necessity compelled him to return in 1872 to his family
in Miazzina, where he worked as a farmer. Nonetheless he
continued to paint landscapes, sending his paintings regularly
to exhibitions in Milan, Turin and Genoa, as an exponent of the
school of Lombard naturalism.
When the Troubetzkoy family invited him to give painting lessons
to their son Pietro in their villa in Ghiffa, Tominetti was able
to widen his acquaintance with aristocratic and upper
middle-class patrons of art.
He also formed a fruitful artistic bond with Vittore Grubicy De
Dragon, who inspired him to experiment in the 90s with a
crepuscular divisionism which included some hints of symbolism.
The painter died at his home in Miazzina in 1916.