Giulio Ricordi was the great-grandson of John Ricordi, founder of Casa Ricordi in 1808. Giulio was witty and versatile and was an artist, writer, journalist and author of varied greatly appreciated musical pages, even by Giuseppe Verdi.

Formis was very close to the world of music at a young age taken the opera singer activities and then devoted himself to painting, enrolling at the Accademia di Brera.

Very appreciated are his Orientalist works, which he made from his frequent trips to the Orient. He also painted landscapes of Italy, inspired by the Lombardy countryside and the surroundings of Lake Maggiore. He became an interpreter of Lombard naturalism, alongside painters such as Eugene Gignous, am...