Francesco Spicuzza Photography

Italian, American, 1883-1962

Italian-born Francesco Spicuzza was primarily a Wisconsin painter who did portraits, still-lives and local landscapes. He spent the first part of his life in near-poverty to become a painter. An eternal optimist, in 1917, the artist reported: "I am happy and my only ambition now is to paint better and better until I shall have reached the measure of the best of which I am capable." (Spicuzza, 1917, p. 22). His predilection for beach scenes germinated early: reportedly, the five-year-old boy first drew the outlines of his father's fishing boat in the sand on the seashore near their home in Sicily. After setting himself up as a fruit peddler in Milwaukee, Spicuzza's father sent for his family when Francesco was eight years old. In 1899 or 1900, Spicuzza began studying drawing and anatomy under Robert Schade (1861-1912), a painter of panoramas who had been trained in Munich under Carl Theodor von Piloty. Spicuzza was also taught by Alexander Mueller (1872-1935), a product of the Weimar and Munich academies. The earliest influences in his work appear to be from Edward H. Potthast and Maurice Prendergast, though Spicuzza never mentioned either artist. Already in August 1910, Spicuzza was described in a newspaper as "one of the most talented of Milwaukee's rising workers." He undoubtedly received lasting inspiration from his one summer study period in 1911 with John F. Carlson at the Art Students League's Summer School in Woodstock, New York. Although he executed numerous still-lives and an occasional religious work, Spicuzza is best known for his Milwaukee beach scenes populated with frolicking bathers in multi-colored attire, not unlike the images of Potthast, who used a similar technique. These beach genre scenes reflect the attitude of American impressionists who depicted the more pleasant side of life. Spicuzza manipulated a successful balance of rich pigment applied in varying degrees of impasto texture with subtle nuances of hue. Working all'aperto, he sought "the soft enticing shades of yellow, blue, green, pink and lavender . . . to get the effects of bright glistening summer air." (L.E.S., n.d.). As a painter whose color not only derived from direct observation but also from a personal theory of color symbolism, Spicuzza traded the linear approach of lithography for dynamic patches of brilliant color. Like Prendergast, he would often tilt the angle of the picture plane to bring the viewer's position above the scene. Spicuzza spent a great deal of time painting en plein air and by 1925 he began summering at Big Cedar Lake, near West Bend, Wisconsin to gather his subject matter. During the difficult era of the Depression, patrons came to Spicuzza's aid and during the 40s, he taught housewives, businessmen and students at the Milwaukee Art Institute, the Milwaukee Art Center, and in his studio. In the following decade, although his kind of art was no longer popular in the "make-it-or-break-it" New York gallery world, Spicuzza enjoyed regular patronage and sales. Bio by Richard H. Love and Michael Preston Worley, Ph.D.

(Biography provided by J Gold Fine Art)

Artist: Francesco Spicuzza

"Children Playing in Water-Lake Michigan (The Splash), " a Siver Gelatin Photo

By Francesco Spicuzza

Located in Milwaukee, WI

"Children Playing in Water-Lake Michigan (The Splash)" is a black and white silver gelatin photo (with grid) by Francesco Spicuzza. It depicts four children playing and splashing in a lake. 12 1/8" x 11" photo 17 1/4" x 17 1/4" frame Francesco J. Spicuzza, born in Sicily on July 23, 1883, came to America at the age of 8. He supported himself as a fruit peddler until a newspaperman gave him $4 a week to go to school. He attended classes at the Milwaukee Art Students League, where he studied under Alexander Mueller. There he learned to paint in the then-fashionable "Munich School" technique, with detailed realism in heavy browns and grayed-out hues. Spicuzza completed eight grades in four years, and then in 1911, three businessmen advanced him enough money to allow him to study in New York under artist and teacher John Carlson. It was during this time that Spicuzza changed his style of painting, developing an impressionistic use of color, form and atmospheric renditions. After a period of grinding poverty, one of Spicuzza's pictures won a major New York competition. It was the first of 60 wins, both in the U.S. and Paris. He became a fashionable painter, and many of the leading collections have his work. Spicuzza's typical works were beach scenes, still life, landscapes and portraits done in pastels, oils, ink, charcoal and watercolors. Much of his work traced the history of Milwaukee in the early 1900s. He was probably best known for his scenes of women and children splashing in the waves...

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Early 20th Century Other Art Style Francesco Spicuzza Photography

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