Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
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.to
2
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
16
465
327
258
218
1
2
Artist: Francesco Spicuzza
"Lake Michigan Beach Scene, " Oil on Canvas Seascape signed by Francesco Spicuzza
By Francesco Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Lake Michigan Beach Scene" is an original oil painting by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist painted this scene on canvas and then glued that canvas to a b...
Category
1930s Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
Early 20th century colorful seaside landscape pastel figures bench trees signed
By Francesco Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Couple on Bench at the Beach" is an original pastel drawing on paperboard by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist signed the piece in the lower left. This drawing depicts two figures sitting on a bench in front of a body of water. The artist used mostly pastel colors for this piece.
6 7/8" x 9 7/8" art
18 1/2" x 21 3/8" 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 the waves...
Category
1910s Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Paper, Pastel, Board
Related Items
Early 20th Century Figurative -- The Paper Boy and His Comics
By Louise Miller Clark
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful 1940s figurative of paper boy reading the comics by Louise Miller Clark (American, 20th Century). Signed "Louise Miller" lower right. Unframed. Im...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
$3,040 Sale Price
44% Off
H 24 in W 18 in D 1 in
Pair of early 20th Century British Impressionist paintings of the beach
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
Attributed to Rowland Wheelwright, 20th Century
'Bather's on the shore' and 'Sunbathing by the Cliffs'
Oil on canvas board
9 X 10. 1/4in. (22.8 X 2...
Category
20th Century Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
$2,570
H 9 in W 10.25 in D 1 in
Mid Century Figurative Landscape -- Aptos Village Apple Shed and Market
By Jon Blanchette
Located in Soquel, CA
Charming mid century figurative landscape of Aptos Village Apple Shed and Market by listed California artist Jon Blanchette (American, 1908-1987). Aptos is just south of Santa Cruz,...
Category
1960s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
$760 Sale Price
20% Off
H 16 in W 20 in D 1 in
"Pilgrimage" - Mid Century Figurative Landscape
By Mary Miller
Located in Soquel, CA
"Pilgrimage", a mid century figurative landscape by Carmel, California artist Mary Miller (Klepich) (American, ? - 1957). Presented in a rustic giltwood frame. Signed "Mary Miller" lower right. Titled "Pilgrimage," dated "1952" and signed "Mary Miller" on logo on verso, with Santa Cruz Art League Twenty Third Statewide Art Exhibition Label. Image, 18"H x 24"L. Framed size: 22.5"H x 28.5"W.
Mary Miller (Klepich) exhibited in the Twenty-Third Annual Santa Cruz State-Wide Art Exhibition. She and her husband Fred Klepich studied at Bellas Artes, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Fred and Mary Owned Carmel Craft Studios, later (SAS) Studio Art Supplies...
Category
1950s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
$1,600 Sale Price
20% Off
H 22.5 in W 28.5 in D 1.5 in
Rota, Spanish Landscape -- Pobre Casa Cadiz
By John Sackas
Located in Soquel, CA
Wonderful Spanish landscape of a humble farm in Rota, Cadiz, Spain with horses, a cow with two herons, one of which is on cow's back by San Francisco artist John Sackas (American, 1910-2004), circa 1950s. Signed lower Left "Sackas" and verso Rota
Farm House Cadiz" "John Sackas" . Verso has location, attribution and full artist's biography. Presented in gilt-toned carved wood frame. Image size: 14"H x 18"W.
Born in New Jersey on May 22, 1910. John Sackas studied at the San Francisco Art Institute (1934), Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles, Corcoran Gallery of Art, and California School of Fine Arts, Jerry...
Category
1950s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas, Illustration Board
Scottish Highland Seascape Shoreline Impasto Painting by Royal Society Artist
By Sheila Macleod Robertson
Located in Preston, GB
Scottish Highland Seascape Shoreline Impasto Painting of An Teallach, Gruinard Bay, Wester Ross by Royal Society Artist, Sheila Macleod Robertson RSMA, SWA. Presented in a vintage wo...
Category
Late 20th Century Post-Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Paint, Cotton Canvas, Oil, Board
$2,743 Sale Price
33% Off
H 18.12 in W 22.05 in D 2.37 in
"Days End" - Volcano, California 1970's Horizontal Landscape
By Frederick Colbus
Located in Soquel, CA
A charming scene of a man leading his horse down a country lane near a red barn in Volcano, CA by listed artist Frederick Colbus (American, 1917-1986).
Signed and dated "F. Colbus, 1978" lower right.
On verso titled "Days End" (Volcano, CA), signed F. Colbus, and dated July 30, 1978.
Presented in a wood frame with linen liner. Image size: 12"H x 24"L
Frederick Colbus was born in Daly City...
Category
1970s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
$920 Sale Price
20% Off
H 18 in W 30 in D 2 in
Women Seated in Garden "Femmos Restant" New Hope Pennsylvania Artist Edna Gass
By Edna Gass
Located in Soquel, CA
Women Seated in Garden "Femmos Restant" New Hope Pennsylvania Artist Edna Gass
Women Seated in the Garden 'Femmos Restant" by New Hope Artist Edna Gass (American, 1904–1993).
Image, ...
Category
1940s Post-Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board
$1,722 Sale Price
35% Off
H 10 in W 8 in D 1 in
Outside the Synagogue Russian Judaica Oil Painting
By Emmanuel Snitkovsky
Located in Surfside, FL
This piece came from the collection of the Bezalel Art Gallery on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Emmanuil Snitkovsky is an internationally known artist, sculpture and poet.
Emmanuil Snitkovsky was born into a family of artists and scholars from the Odessa Art College in Russia. Immersed in the traditions of Russia art, he approaches form, line, space and color with relentless vision and impeccable technique.
Two highly successful artists, the husband and wife team of Emmanuil and Janet Snitkovsky have exhibited a selection of eight large Judaic paintings at the Chabad Chassidic Art Institute (Chai Gallery) in Crown Heights. Three of those paintings are truly singular visions of Jewish Art that cause us to stop and reassess our preconceptions about the meaning and importance of their subjects. Emmanuil and Janet Snitkovsky were both born in the Ukraine in the 1930′s. Emmanuil was trained in Odessa in public monument art, and Janet majored in fashion at the Lvov Decorative Art Institute. After both narrowly survived the devastation of the Second World War in Stalin’s Russia, they began to collaborate on state sponsored art works in 1962. For ten years, they worked on grandiose public sculptural projects to commemorate the fallen Russian heroes of the Second World War in Moscow, Kiev, Tula and Kazan. They were
exemplary Soviet Realists working for the Soviet regime. Eventually, this career became untenable for them, both as artists and as Jews, when they clashed with Soviet officialdom over a commission to commemorate the Babi-Yar massacre. The Soviets refused to acknowledge this massacre of 100,000 Jews and eventually suppressed the memorial. In 1978, Emmanuil and Janet arrived in New York and began to recreate their artistic lives. In the ensuing 25 years, they have been quite successful, exhibiting widely in the United States and Europe. They have nurtured a hybrid style of painting and sculpture called “Renaissance Revival” combining contemporary and classical subjects in a stylized realism that evokes both the American regionalist Thomas Hart
Benton and the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. The works are highly proficient, polished, and commercial productions in a quirky decorative style. They have continued to accept sculptural projects that have not shied away from kitschy realistic sculptures of Charlie Chaplin as “The Kid,” The Little Tramp” and Buster Keaton as “Cameramen.” In some ways, they have appropriated American culture just as they once accepted Soviet culture.
Janet, a graduate of the Lvov College, was invited- by virtue of the high honors she
achieved there- to matriculate at the Lvov University of Art. Such an opportunity is extremely rare for anyone, particularly for someone of Jewish descent. Their works of art are included in collections of the Japanese Imperial Family...
Category
1980s Modern Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board
Morning Sunrise, Mid Century Laguna Hills Figurative Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Beautiful mid century plein air figural landscape of Laguna Niguel, California by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). The morning sun gli...
Category
1950s American Modern Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Cardboard
$719 Sale Price
20% Off
H 20 in W 24 in D 2 in
Shorebirds in the Surf an Original Pastel by Gregory Biolchini
Located in Soquel, CA
Shorebirds in the Surf an Original Pastel by Gregory Biolchini
Shorbirds in the Florida Surf by Gregory Biolchini (American, B- 1948).
Lively pastel with eager Shorebirds hunting for...
Category
1980s American Impressionist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil Pastel, Laid Paper
$2,120 Sale Price
20% Off
H 33 in W 44.75 in D 2.5 in
"Hialeah Park Race Track, Florida" Beatrix Sherman, American, Mid 20th Century
Located in New York, NY
Beatrix Sherman
Hialeah Park Race Track, Florida, 1947
Signed lower right
Oil on canvasboard
16 x 20 inches
Beatrix Sherman (1894-1975), who changed her first name from Beatrice by...
Category
1940s American Realist Francesco Spicuzza Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Board
$8,500
H 22.5 in W 26.5 in
Francesco Spicuzza figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Francesco Spicuzza figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Francesco Spicuzza in board, canvas, crayon and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Impressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Francesco Spicuzza figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 20 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ian Hornak, Marcel Dyf, and Ben Fenske. Francesco Spicuzza figurative paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $13,500 and tops out at $24,500, while the average work can sell for $19,000.