About this artwork

This portrait of the caricaturist, Emilio Coia, was an eightieth birthday present from the artist. Born into the large émigré community of Italians who moved to Scotland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Coia was admitted to Glasgow School of Art at the age of sixteen. During the early and mid-1930s, he drew for many major periodicals and journals, including the ‘Sunday Chronicle’ and ‘Daily Express’. This work brought him into contact with some of the century’s most notable literary and artistic figures. From the late 1930s until the early 1950s Coia worked as a graphic artist mostly in advertising, moving back to Scotland after the Second World War. He returned to the press in the early 1950s.

Updated before 2020

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Stephen Conroy

Stephen Conroy