Edward Cucuel (August 6, 1875,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

– April 18, 1954, Pasadena, California), was an American-born painter who lived and worked in Germany.

Life and work

He was the son of a German newspaper publisher. At the age of fourteen he was already attending the San Francisco Art Institute and doing illustrations for '' The Examiner''. At the age of seventeen, he went to Paris where he attended the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi, finishing at the

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

under

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ra ...

.The Art Directory: Biography
/ref> When he came back to the United States in 1896, he briefly worked as a newspaper illustrator in New York, but returned to France and Italy to acquaint himself with the old masters at first hand. He ended up in Germany in 1899, where he worked as a free-lance newspaper illustrator in Berlin and Leipzig. In 1904, after working as a reporter at the St. Louis World's Fair, he decided to take a trip around the world, visiting Japan, China and Sri Lanka. Following a brief stay in San Francisco to visit his family after the

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

, he settled in Munich in 1907. It was there that he became a friend of the German painter,

Leo Putz Leo Putz (18 June 1869, Merano, South Tyrol, Austria-Hungary – 21 July 1940, Merano, Kingdom of Italy) was a Tyrolean painter. His work encompasses Art Nouveau, Impressionism and the beginnings of Expressionism. Figures, nudes and landscapes ...

, and was introduced to

plein-air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

painting. He also became a member of the

Munich Secession The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism and its conservative polic ...

. In 1913, he became a member of the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

and exhibited with the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...

. That same year, he married Clara Lotte von Marcard, a friend of Putz and his wife, Frieda Blell. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he lived in Holzhausen on the Ammersee, later establishing studios in Munich and Starnberg, his father's hometown. From 1928 to 1939, he commuted between there and New York, where he spent the winters. The beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

forced him to leave Germany for good in 1939. He settled in Pasadena, California, where he lived until his death in 1954. His style was generally impressionistic and his favorite subjects were idyllic outdoor scenes with young women. His works may be seen at the

Chicago Art Institute The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the

National Academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with State (polity), state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but ...

in New York, and the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, as well as many other places in the U.S. and Europe.

References

External links

The Athenaeum: Edward Cucuel's self-portrait
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cucuel, Edward 1875 births 1954 deaths American expatriates in the German Empire Impressionism 20th-century American painters American male painters École des Beaux-Arts alumni Académie Julian alumni Académie Colarossi alumni 20th-century American male artists

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links