Sylvia Spicuzza

"Girl in Hammock - Big Cedar Lake, " Graphite Drawing by Sylvia Spicuzza

circa 1927

"The Presence" is an original graphite drawing created by Cynthia Torroll. This is a meditation on meditation. It took the artist two months and two days to draw this piece. Torroll ...

"Monkey Island at Washington Park Zoo" is an original graphite and charcoal drawing on paper by Francesco Spicuzza. It depicts a number of figures gazing out at a monkey enclosure at a zoo. The artist signed the piece in the lower left. 8 1/2" x 11 3/4" art 17 1/4" x 21 1/8" 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...

In this painting, Sylvia Spicuzza demonstrates her skill as an illustration artist, representing the Milwaukee character Billie the Brownie with a growing spring of a tree. An illustration like this could grace the pages of a children's book or illustrated magazine, or as an advertisement for Schuster’s Department Store. Watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper 8 x 5.75 inches, artwork 14 x 12 inches, frame Stamped with artist signature, below image, lower left. Presented in a new custom frame with a gold-finish neoclassical wood moulding, archival matting and mounting materials; and UV glass to inhibit fading. Born in 1908, Sylvia Spicuzza was the daughter of noted painter Francesco Spicuzza. Sylvia devoted herself to teaching art to the students of Lake Bluff Elementary School in Shorewood, WI. During this time Sylvia produced a magnificent body of work that was undiscovered until her death. Sylvia's work is rich, diverse and fascinating collection of drawings, watercolors and prints from the 1920's to the 1990's. Her style ranges from early figurative drawings to regionalism, Art Deco, lyrical abstractions of every conceivable subject (both real and imagined), as well as figurative paintings that reflect the work of Picasso, Kandinsky and Max Ernst in the 1930's and 1940's. Biomorphic and organic, Modernist images are presented with Sylvia Spicuzza's own unique sense of style, humor and fantasy. Billie the Brownie was a multi-media star of Christmas in Milwaukee from the 1920s to the 1950s. Years earlier, the writer and artist Palmer Cox...

This exquisite yet unfinished drawing by American cartoonist Al Capp, entitled 'Golf,' presents a humorous view of the beloved game. The composition depicts fo...

In this drawing, Milwaukee-based artist Joan Dvorsky presents a drawing after a sketch by Edgar Degas. Degas' original drawing was a study for an 1863 painting entitled 'Les malheurs...

"Portrait of Young Woman with Bonnet" is an original watercolor and graphite drawing on paper by Hannah de Rothschild. This artwork features a woman in a hat holding a ring. 10" x ...

Weltevreden, Kebon Sirih, & Vlucht voor de bui (Fleeing the rain) Executed between February 20 and March 2, 1918 Double sided drawing in graphite pencil on paper Images: c. 33 x 5...

Graveyard with in the background the Borobudur, 1937 Signed with initials and dated bottom left Pencil and ink on paper, 33 x 29 cm In ebonized frame with white mount Literature: ...

LOT:20220614S01 Michael Scoggins [Bling Drawing #3] Graphite, artist crayon, flashe paint, acrylic paint and colored pencil on paper Signed, titled and dated 2021 on the reverse Uni...

Melchior DOZE (1827-1913) Study of a saint, ca. 1875-79 Preparatory drawing for the decoration of the church of Saint-Félix de Saint-Gervasy (Gard), chapel of the Cross (south side...

Entitled "Drawing for The Sponsor," this work by Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald envisions an advertisement by Southport Tool and Die, a Chicago company from the 1940s and th...

Entitled "Drawing for Allegheny + Ludlum Helmet & Jacket," this work by Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald is a companion piece to his sculpture "A+L Helmet & Jacket." Worn by the imagined driver of one of his miniature soap box derby cars, each helmet & jacket is branded with an industrial sponsor, in this case the Allegheny Ludlum Corporation, a steel manufacturer from the early 20th century. Mounted on subtle collage materials and paper fragments...