This English translation from the Italian site:
Alexander Degai was born on 16 March 1890 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The grandfather is of Italian origin, has came with Napoleon troops to Russia and remained in Russia for good. Name Alexander he got from his mother who was officially a spouse of his father a Russian woman.
Burst the October revolution, Degai follows the white army of Gen. Deinking and after the defeat of his army by Red Army of Communists he refuges first in Switzerland. There he begins to paint military subjects with the left hand, since he had lost the other right one in war.
He moves himself in 1927 to Rome where he mainly executes postcards for various units of the Army and for Police officers "Carabineri", Financial police, Genius and Bersaglieres. He collaborates to the review "Army and Nation", its little figures of the Napoleonic era.
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