Born in Lugano in 1815, Carlo Bossoli emerged as one of the foremost topographical painters in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. Renowned for his precise and atmospheric views, he received commissions from the most distinguished circles, among them Empress Eugénie, Prince Eugenio di Savoia-Carignano and Queen Victoria.
In 1820 the Bossoli family emigrated to Odessa in southern Ukraine, settling within the flourishing Ticinese community established there. Employed at first in a print shop, Bossoli soon devoted himself to drawing and painting. He swiftly revealed a precocious talent for topographical draughtsmanship, attracting the attention of Princess Elizaveta, whose husband, the Governor-General of Novorossiya, commissioned a series of panoramic views of Odessa. So impressed was he by the results that he sponsored Bossoli's studies in Italy between 1839 and 1840. During this formative period Bossoli travelled to Rome and Naples, refining his watercolour and gouache technique among the painters of the School of Posillipo.
By 1853 Bossoli had settled in Turin, which remained his home for the rest of his life. The outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 prompted him to travel to London, where his knowledge of Crimea proved highly advantageous, and enabled him to produce a series of fifty-two detailed views of the region. Between 1855 and 1859 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, and in 1857 undertook his most extensive journey, travelling through France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Switzerland, including a visit to Moscow. Each tour gave rise to a fresh body of drawings and watercolours recording the cities and landscapes he encountered.
In 1862 he was appointed Pittore Reale di Storia (History Painter to the King) by Vittorio Emanuele II, and over the course of his career he was invited to exhibit at Brera in 1845 and 1852, at the Promotrice di Belle Arti in Turin on numerous occasions between 1844 and 1884, reflecting the considerable success and sustained popularity of his work.
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