Felicita Frai biography

Felicita Frai, the Italianized name of Felice Frajova, was a Czech painter naturalized Italian. She was born in Prague in 1909. In 1930, just of age, she interrupted her university studies in her hometown and moved to Italy, first staying in Trieste and then in Ferrara. In the Renaissance city, she met Achille Funi, introduced to her by Leonor Fini, who would become her teacher, collaborator, and lover. Under the guidance of the Ferrara painter, Felicita Frai studied the fresco technique and together they created in 1936 the decoration The Myth of Ferrara in the Arengo hall of the Municipal Palace of Ferrara. The collaboration with Achille Funi continued also in 1935/36 for the decorations of the National Labor Bank headquarters in Rome and the RAS management in Trieste, and in 1937 for the frescoes of the Church of San Francesco Nuovo in Tripoli, Libya.
In 1938 she participated in the Venice Art Biennale, returning there in 1948.
In the 1940s, Felicita Frai moved to Milan, where she attended the studio of Giorgio De Chirico and participated in all editions of the Triennale from 1945 to 1954. She devoted herself to figure painting and still life but also to engraving and illustration of books such as Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll and The Hedgehog's Tree by Antonio Gramsci.
In the Milanese city begins a very fortunate period for the Czech painter who mingles with artists like De Pisis, Carrà, Morandi and receives important commissions. The preferred subjects of her works are female figures and flowers, which she creates with a naive and playful spirit and the refinement of an illustrator. In 2001 Felicita Frai receives the Ambrogino d'oro. She passed away in Milan in 2010 at the age of 100.