Cyrus Cincinnati Cuneo
San Francisco, 1879 – London, 1916
Dream or torment of Saint Anthony
Lead pencil and stump on thin cardboard.
350 x 230 mm – 13 3/4 x 9 1/16 in.
Signed and dated 99 top right.
Provenance: – Paris, Galerie Mathieu Néouze – Paris, private collection.
Cyrus Cincinnati Cuneo, also known as Ciro, was born on June 18, 1879 in San Francisco, United States, into an Italian-American family of artists and musicians. Cuneo began drawing at a young age and his first published drawings appeared in an Italian newspaper when he was only 16 years old. He then worked for the San Francisco press for three years and also trained in boxing. In 1896, he left San Francisco for Paris with only 40 $ in his pocket to study painting. In Paris, he joined Colarossi’s studio and studied under James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Girardo. In 1902 he moved to London where the following year he married the artist Nellie Tenison.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1908 and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Hibernian Society. A talented illustrator, he regularly provides plates for illustrating short stories to magazines such as the Pall Mail Magazine, the Strand Magazine, the Premier Magazine and I’ lllustrated News. He also collaborates on works such as The Lost Column by C. Gilbson or The Legendary Consecration of Westminster Abbey. Died on July 23, 1916 in London, at the age of 37, Cuneo left behind an important artistic legacy and a family of talented artists. Our drawing can be compared to lithography for The Fisherman’s Vision (ill. 1) illustrating the work The Legendary Consecration of Westminster Abbey, edited by Bruce Ingram in 1911, during his London period and at the end of his short life. Both works are imbued with a powerful mystical or fantastical atmosphere.
Condition report: Perfect condition.
