Emvin Cremona

Emvin Cremona (27 May 1919 – 29 January 1987) was a Maltese artist and stamp designer. He is regarded as one of the best Maltese artists of the 20th century. Cremona is known for designing most Maltese stamps from 1957 to the 1970s, including the stamp issue commemorating Malta's independence from Great Britain in 1964. He studied at the Malta School of Arts and the Regia Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rome. Some of his works can be found at the parish churches of Msida and Ħamrun, Ta' Pinu Sanctuary and the Chapel of the Malta International Airport. The World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva and the United Nations Headquarters in New York also house paintings by Cremona.^[1][2]

Emvin Vincent Cremona - his christian names were soon shortened to Emvin - was born in Valletta on May 27th, 1919. Up to 1936 he attended the Scuola Umberto I for his formal education. In 1933, he was taken to Rome were he was overwhelmed by the experience. Later he attended the School of Art, finding himself in a class that composed Willie Apap, Anton Inglott, Esprit Barthet, and Victor Diacono. Their teachers were Edward Caruana Dingli and Carmenu Mangion, both of a mixed classicist and Romantic temperament.

At an early age, Cremona used to participate in the annual shows of the Malta Amateur Art Association. In 1937 he competed for the Government scholarship, placing third after Willie Apap and Anton Inglott. In spite of this setback, he was luckily able to summon enough financial assistance to proceed to Rome for a course of studies at the Regia Accademia di Belle Arti under Carlo Siviero between 1938 and 1940. In Rome he felt a closeness, a spiritual kinship to Anton Inglott. The two young artists were still in Rome just before Italy entered the war in 1940 but they returned to Malta together on the last boat to reach the island in peace time.

In 1945 he won the Agnes Schembri Bequest, enabling him to proceed to London and Paris to deepen his studies in art. Between 1945 and 1947 he attended classes at the Slade School of Fine Arts and later he attended lessons at the Parisian Ecole Superieur de Beaux Arts under professor Jean Dupas. Emvin returned to Malta in 1948. He married Lilian Gatt and had four children.^[3]

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