Kolë Idromeno (Nikolle), a painter, photographer, and architect known as the Painter of the People, was born in Shkodër. He hailed from the family of engineer Arsen Idromeno, who came from Arta e Çamëri and settled in Shkodër after being persecuted by the Ottoman authorities. From an early age, Kolë displayed a clear inclination for the arts, which he cultivated under the guidance of the photographer Pietro Marubi. In 1876, he traveled to Venice, where he attended the Academy of Arts for a few months before working with a local painter who was a family friend. Throughout his career, he practiced a variety of skills, including painting, sculpture, theatrical decoration, engineering, and furniture carpentry. He was one of the initiators of the first collective art exhibition in Shkodër in 1923 and participated in the first national exhibition titled “Art i thjeshtë” (“Simple Art”), which opened in Tirana in 1931. Kolë Idromeno operated a photographic studio in Shkodër and was the first organizer of cinematographic performances in Albania in 1912. He gained recognition internationally, with works exhibited in Budapest (1900) and New York (1939). His paintings are characterized by interesting, descriptive compositions that reflect a certain naivety about the typical life of Albania, as seen in works like “Dasma shkodrane” (“Shkodra Wedding”) (1920) and religious subjects that accurately depict everyday scenes (“Dy rrugë” (“Two Roads”), 1886). He excelled particularly in portrait painting, as seen in “Portret fshatari” (“Peasant Portrait”) (1924) and “Mbesa” (“Granddaughter”) (1932). Among his masterpieces is “Motra Tone” (“Our Sister”) (1883), a profound and delicate portrait that also captures the social drama of women from Shkodër. Kolë Idromeno was the first Albanian artist to work in the landscape genre, treating it with intense colors and paving the way for secular realistic painting. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Kolë Idromeno contributed to the urban planning of Shkodër at the beginning of the 20th century, designing a series of public, social, and private buildings in the architectural style of the period, many of which shaped the city’s main street. His photographs serve as important historical documents, made with an aesthetic sense. His paintings are housed in the Art Galleries of Tirana and Shkodër, while his photographs and drawings are preserved in the Central State Archive. Kolë Idromeno passed away in 1939. (In the photo: Kole Idromeno)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 971-972.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kol%C3%AB_Idromeno
Graphic processing: AHCF
