Nicholas A. Volpe (19111992) was an American artist, noted for his
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s of
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
celebrities, presidents, sports figures, and other famous personalities.
["Nicholas Volpe and the 1962 Volpe Collection of Academy Awards Portraits"]
''Immortal Ephemera'' He is said to have painted more movie stars than any other artist in America.
Early years
Volpe was born in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, to an
Italian immigrant family. He began his primary education there and became especially talented as a young violinist. His parents sent him to Italy to continue his violin studies, assuming he might take it up as a profession. He grew homesick for his home in the U.S. however, and soon returned to New Haven to finish his high school education.
["Volpe: Portrait of an Artist"]
Beatlesportraits.com
After Volpe graduated high school, where he had also played football, he was accepted at
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
on a football scholarship. Rather than major in music, he gravitated towards art as he discovered his natural talents as an artist. Upon graduation he was offered a professorship at the university to teach art. He turned down the offer, deciding that he needed more time to develop his artistic skills more fully. He subsequently entered an art contest with thousands of other contestants and was one of six who won the coveted
Tiffany Foundation Art Scholarship Award.
[ Among his prizes was the opportunity to live at a private seaside estate in ]Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
where he could continue painting in seclusion.[
]
Career
Volpe later accepted a position as a fine art instructor at New York City's Leonardo da Vinci Art School
The Leonardo da Vinci Art School (the "Leonardo") was an art school founded in New York City (1923–1942), whose most famous student was Isamu Noguchi and whose director was sculptor and poet Onorio Ruotolo.
History
First decade
With sculptor ...
. After a few years there he accepted the post of Dean of Arts at Jacksonville College
Jacksonville College is a private junior college in Jacksonville, Texas. It is the only accredited junior college in Texas that is privately owned and operated, owned by the Baptist Missionary Association of America, with additional financial su ...
in Florida, where he spent three years. He next decided to move to Hollywood, California after he received an offer by a studio to design film sets, create make-up and design costumes.[
]
During this period, his talent as a portrait artist was soon noticed, as he had also by then painted or drawn portraits of various stars, and his reputation as a highly skilled artist became widely recognized. As a result, Volpe was given a lifetime contract by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...
to paint each year's Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
winning Best Actor and Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
. The majority of his Oscar portraits were made with charcoal pencil.
Beside his annual Academy Awards paintings, Vople painted commissions such as Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
's album ''Only the Lonely
"Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)" is a 1960 song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. Orbison's recording of the song, produced by Fred Foster for Monument Records, was the first major hit for the singer. It was described by ''The Ne ...
'' in 1958. This earned him a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for Best Album Cover.
[Biography included in th]
"Volpe's Complete Portrait Collection of Academy Award Winners"
1962. During Volpe's career, he would paint Sinatra 24 times, more than any other celebrity, including a full-size painting now displayed at the Friars Club of Beverly Hills
The Friars Club of Beverly Hills (also known as the Friars Club of California) was a private show business club started in 1947 by comedian/actor Milton Berle, among other celebrities who had moved from New York. It was forced to change its name ...
.
With his fame as an artist increasing, in 1964, he was commissioned by The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
to paint portraits o
each of the four members
of the group during their first American tour.[ ]Capitol Records
Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
created posters from the final illustrations. He was also commissioned to do a portrait of Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...
for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
.
After winning a Grammy he was also commissioned by Hollywood's famed Brown Derby
Brown Derby was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and best known was shaped like a derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was opened by Wilson Mizner in 1926. The chain ...
restaurant to paint portraits of up to 200 top recording artists to be displayed in the restaurant's Hall of Fame Record Room. His Oscar paintings were displayed in the restaurant's "Academy Room," created for showing Volpe's art.[ On other occasions, he was asked to paint the team members of the ]Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
baseball team, and various other sports teams had likewise commissioned his art. Along with stars and sports figures, he painted portraits of leading political figures, including John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
, Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
. He traveled to Israel to paint its first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...
.[
Volpe wrote and illustrated a regular newspaper column in the '']Los Angeles Herald Examiner
The ''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'' was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. It was formed when the afternoon ' ...
'', with articles covering various travel topics about California. He also traveled across the country during tours where he appeared on television, gave radio interviews, and spoke to audiences at various events. In 1973 he returned to teaching art at Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and t ...
in Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malibu ...
.[
]
Personal life
He spent his career living in Southern California, where he would marry and raise his three children.[ He and his wife spent much of their vacation time traveling throughout Mexico in their motor home, which inspired him to paint hundreds of scenics and portraits of Mexicans.][ He died in ]Oceanside, California
Oceanside is a city on the South Coast (California), South Coast of California, located in San Diego County, California, San Diego County. The city had a population of 167,086 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The city is a popular ...
, following a stroke, on February 11, 1992. He was 80."Nicholas Volpe; Artist Combined Painting, Poetry"
''Los Angeles Times'', Feb. 15, 1992
Notes
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Volpe, Nicholas
1911 births
1992 deaths
20th-century American painters
American columnists
American costume designers
American illustrators
American make-up artists
American male painters
American people of Italian descent
American portrait painters
American scenic designers
Artists from Los Angeles
Artists from New Haven, Connecticut
American art educators
Grammy Award winners
Painters from California
Painters from Connecticut
Pepperdine University faculty
Syracuse University alumni
School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni
Art Students League of New York alumni
20th-century American male artists