Rinaldo Cuneo

Early 20th Century Carmel Point Lobos and Monastery Beach Seascape

1925

Dubbed “The Painter of San Francisco." Well received at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition in 1915. Born in San Francisco, California and raised in the North Beach area, Rinaldo Cuneo was a painter of landscape, still lifes, city views and muralist who, commissioned by the Federal Art Project adminstrators, painted murals in Coit Tower in San Francisco in 1934. His studio and cottage in San Francisco, later in his career, had a panoramic view of the bay from Telegraph Hill. His family were painters including two of his brothers, Cyrus and Egisto Cuneo, and several family members were founders of the Tivoli Opera Company in San Francisco. He served in the Spanish-American War and then studied at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art with Arthur Mathews and Gottardo Piazzoni. He then went to London where he joined his brother Cyrus and also studied in Paris at the Académie Colarossi. In 1913, he had his first exhibition, which was held at the Helgesen Gallery in San Francisco, and in 1916 and 1917, he worked with a tug boat service at San Anselmo. He also pursued his painting interests, and in 1928, he took a painting trip to Arizona. Source: Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940