Born in
Milan, then part of the
Austrian Empire, into a noble family, Gola was encouraged to develop his interest in art in his adolescence by his father, a dilettante painter. He graduated in industrial engineering from the
Polytechnic University of Milan in 1873. He did not enrol at the
Brera Academy, but took private lessons from
Sebastiano De Albertis. At the same time he became interested in the works of
Tranquillo Cremona and
Daniele Ranzoni. His wealthy family background enabled him to make a series of visits to
France, the
Netherlands and
England where he encountered the work of foreign artists. Gola made his artistic début at the Brera Annual Exhibition in 1879 with a
Study from Life and
Head: Study from Life. His early work was already noted for its strong colour combinations and vigorous brushwork, as in the portrait of
Contessa Gola, Mother of the Artist (c. 1882). Gola participated regularly in national exhibitions, but obtained his greatest official recognition at the European level. By the 1880s he was an esteemed portrait who depicted women of the Milanese nobility in their fashionable, worldly dimension but with a vigorously naturalistic approach. His portraits were accompanied by a rich repertoire of views of Milan and the countryside of
Brianza in bright colours that were to constitute his stylistic hallmark. Active in the region of
Liguria and
Venice, he focused in his late period on seascapes distinguished by great formal synthesis and expressive intensity. One of his pupils was
Alberto Malaspina. == Work ==