Medardo Rosso was born in Turin in 1858 and later moved with his family to Milan, where he enrolled at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1882. However, his time at the academy was brief, as he was expelled in 1883—the same year he participated in the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome. Rosso’s artistic journey began within the Milanese Scapigliatura movement, a literary and artistic circle that sharply criticized Italian Romanticism and the cultural ideals of the Risorgimento, instead embracing French naturalism and the fin de siècle sensibility influenced by Baudelaire.
During this period, Rosso primarily exhibited his sculptural works in Paris, presenting them at prestigious venues such as the Salon des Artistes Français, the Salon des Indépendants, and the Galerie Thomas et Georges Petit. In 1888, he exhibited in London at the Italian Exhibition organized by Alberto Grubicy. He returned to Paris in 1889, where he settled permanently. That same year, at the Paris Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair), he presented five bronze sculptures—El locch, Gavroche, Ruffiana, Carne altrui, and Aetas Aurea—which received critical acclaim and the attention of fellow artists.
In 1893, Rosso held his first solo exhibition in Paris, attracting important figures such as Auguste Rodin. However, their relationship evolved into a complex one, marked by both admiration and rivalry, particularly around debates on who pioneered Impressionist sculpture. This dispute was explored in depth by Edmond Claris in a 1901 article for La Nouvelle Revue, and later in his volume De l’Impressionisme en sculpture (1902).
During his years in Paris, Rosso continued to experiment with bronze casting and wax modeling in his studio on rue Caulaincourt, and he also opened a public studio on Boulevard des Batignolles. After acquiring French citizenship in 1902, several of his works were purchased by the French state, including Ecce Puer and Femme à la voilette for the Musée du Luxembourg, and Aetas aurea for the Petit Palais.
In the early 20th century, Rosso continued to exhibit internationally—in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, and Rotterdam), Germany (Dresden, Berlin, and Leipzig), Brussels (1907), and Moscow (1908). Earlier, in 1905, he had inaugurated a solo show in Vienna, presenting sculptures and replicas of ancient works. His passion for reinterpreting classical subjects resurfaced in 1906, when he held a solo exhibition at the Eugène Cremetti Gallery in London, featuring twenty-two works, including wax sculptures, bronzes, drawings, and reproductions of antiquities.
In Italy, the first major exhibition on Impressionism—including works by Medardo Rosso—opened in 1910. The following year, he once again took part in the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome. Already celebrated by the Futurists as a sculptor of modernity, Rosso began forming closer ties with the movement in the following years. He returned to Milan in 1920, and in 1926, Margherita Sarfatti dedicated an entire room to him at the Permanente during the Novecento Italiano exhibition, showcasing eleven of his sculptures.
Medardo Rosso, a sculptor whose ultimate goal was to make matter dissolve and forget itself, worked with wax, terracotta, bronze, and plaster. Praised by the Impressionists, he became a model for later generations, especially for young Futurists. In one of his final exhibitions—eight years before his death—Rosso presented Bambino malato, Il bambino ebreo, La portinaia, and Ecce puer at the Venice Sacred Art Exhibition, deliberately renaming the subjects as San Giovannino, San Luigi, Sant’Orsola, and Enfant de Nazareth. As his life drew to a close, Rosso returned to a theme that had long captivated him: the purity, freshness, and innocence of childhood. A copy of Ecce Puer was even placed on his grave at Milan’s Monumental Cemetery.
