Italian painter Giovanni Battista Crema (1883–1964) was born in Ferrara on April 13th. Son of a lawyer, Carlo Crema, and Maria Cottica, already as a child he showed an out of the ordinary ability in drawing, so much so as to convince his parents to introduce him to the rudiments of painting with Angelo Longanesi Cattani, appreciated portraitist of the local high society, before entering academic studies.
A cultured, curious and enthusiastic man and artist, he enters the world of contemporary art at a very young age, even if the advance of the avant-gardes, to which he looks with skepticism, convinces him to isolate himself more and more and to undertake a completely solitary search.
After completing his training in Naples, with Domenico Morelli and Bologna, with Domenico Ferri, Giovanni Battista Crema arrived in Rome in 1903.
And it is in the Eternal City that, attending Giacomo Balla, he is seduced by the novelties of Divisionism, to which he will remain faithful in the decades to follow.