Designer

Filippo Salesi was born in Menton on 29 October 1885 to Francesco and Annunziata Fanciulli.

After completing his first studies in his home town under the guidance of Maestro Mauro Cerutti, he followed, starting in 1900, Professor Colombo's drawing courses in the Principality of Monaco, where in 1908 he was appointed substitute teacher at the School of Drawing, Arts and Crafts.
In 1911 he moved to Rome to attend the plastic course at the Scuola degli Incurabili, where he also attended the architecture course held by Bazzani and the nude courses at the French Academy.

In 1915 he was called to arms and did his military service as a draftsman for the War Ministry in Rome, where in 1916 he painted the first portrait of his wife and parents. At the end of the conflict he went to Bulgaria, where he spent a period of reflection that kept him away from the art scene for more than seven years.

He resumed his activity in 1931 with the work "Prima posa", followed by his first personal exhibition in Sanremo.
In 1934 he was entered in the Historical Archives of Venice, three years later he moved to Campione d'Italia and in 1948 definitively to Sanremo.

The following years saw him as a protagonist in important events and exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including the World Figure Competition (Sydney 1955), a first anthological exhibition (Venice 1962) and a solo exhibition at the Civic Museum of Pistoia (1968), the European Biennial of Dubrovnik (1970), the Review of Italian Painters (Madrid 1971) and the Art Biennale of Montecarlo (1975). His most significant recognitions include his appointment as a member of the Accademia Tiberina in Rome in 1968, his inclusion in the Regesto Biografico e Tecnico degli Artisti italiani and his registration at the Accademia di Arti, Lettere e Scienze in Rome in 1975 and his inclusion in the International Art Register in 1976.

He died in Sanremo on 6 January 1977.

He left a patrimony of over 500 paintings, many of them portraits, female nudes, still lifes, landscapes, but above all characteristic views and glimpses of the Riviera di Ponente and Sanremo in particular, to his daughter Mirella, founder and director of the "Ottorino Respighi" School of Music.

(source: Andrea Gandolfo)