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Umberto Boccioni was born on 19 October 1882 in Reggio Calabria, the southernmost tip of mainland Italy. His father was a minor government employee, originally from the Romagna region in the north, and his job included frequent reassignments throughout Italy.
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In 1906, he briefly moved to Paris, where he studied Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles, before visiting Russia for three months, getting a first-hand view of the civil unrest and governmental crackdowns.
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Returning to Italy in 1907, he briefly took drawing classes at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice. He became acquainted with fellow Futurists, including the famous poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. The two artists would later join with others in writing manifestos on Futurism.
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The Morning was noted for "the bold and youthful violence of hues" and as "a daring exercise in luminosity."
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His 1910 Three Women, which portrays his mother and sister, and longtime lover Ines at center, was cited as expressing great emotion - strength, melancholy and love.
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Yet by the end of 1913 he had completed what is considered his masterpiece, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, in wax. His goal for the work was to depict a "synthetic continuity" of motion, instead of an "analytical discontinuity".During his life, the work only existed as a plaster cast. It was first cast in bronze in 1931.This sculpture has been the subject of extensive commentary, and in 2009 it was selected as the image to be engraved on the back of the Italian 20-cent euro coin.
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In 1914 he published Pittura e scultura futuriste (dinamismo plastico) explaining the aesthetics of the group
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He was drafted into the Italian Army to fight in WWI, and was assigned to an artillery regiment at Sorte, near Verona.
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He was thrown from his horse during a cavalry training exercise and was trampled. He died the following day, aged thirty-three.
