Yesterday, Monday, October 13, Marco Crippa passed away after a long illness. To everyone, he was “The Painter of Milan,” an artist who managed to merge his own identity with that of the city, until he became part of its landscape. His story intertwines not only with Milan but also with the act of making art in the streets.

Born in 1936 and raised in the Isola district, Crippa studied at the Brera Academy, but the street soon became his real school. With his easel among passersby and a palette knife always in hand, he portrayed Milan for over fifty years: the Navigli, the old courtyard houses, the squares, and the courtyards. Every corner became a fragment of color, a living testimony of the city changing before his eyes.

In 2023, La Permanente in Milan dedicated a retrospective exhibition to him, Milan in the Works of Marco Crippa. 50 Years of Street Painting, retracing his career and his unbreakable bond with the urban fabric. “Milan has been my only model,” Crippa often said.

In recent years, forced to paint away from the streets, he found in flowers a new way to express the same sensitivity. His canvases remain today as an emotional map of Milan — a city seen and lived through an authentic, human, and luminous gaze.