Peter Pezzati (September 18, 1902 – February 19, 1993) was an American

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 ...

artist who was located in the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area. His art was rooted in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

tradition. His artwork included landscapes, pen and ink drawings, watercolors, pastel and oil portraits.

Early life

He was born Peter S. Pezzati to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

immigrant parents, Sisto and Cesarina (Opizzi) Pezzati, in

Roxbury, Massachusetts Roxbury () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Roxbury is a Municipal annexation in the United States, dissolved municipality and one of 23 official neighborhoods of Boston used by the city for n ...

. Pezzati graduated from

Boston College High School , motto_translation = ''So they may know You.'' , address = 150 Morrissey Boulevard , city = Boston , state = Massachusetts , zipcode = 02125 , country ...

in 1917 where he studied both Latin and Greek. He was to eventually master six languages. He then won a scholarship to the Child-Walker School of Arts and Crafts in Boston; there he studied under American painter

Charles Hopkinson Charles Sydney Hopkinson (July 27, 1869 – October 16, 1962) was an American portrait painter and landscape watercolorist. He maintained a studio in the Fenway Studios building in Boston from 1906 to 1962. He painted over 800 portraits in ...

, who took him on as an assistant. In the mid-1920s he taught art at the Child-Walker School for two years, then went on a six-month traveling and painting tour of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, especially

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and Italy, arriving back in Boston just in time to attend his sister Josephine's wedding on February 19, 1928, where he was the best man of Bruno Ferroli. He continued to apprentice under Hopkinson, and worked at Hopkinson's Fenway studio.

Art career

Pezzati painted many eminent Bostonians and Americans such as

Ralph Lowell Major Ralph Lowell (July 23, 1890 – May 15, 1978) was a World War I veteran, banker, and philanthropist from Boston. Lowell was born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to John and Mary Emlen Lowell (Lowell 1899, p 302). Lowell graduated f ...

William L. Kenly William Lacy Kenly (February 18, 1864 – January 10, 1928) was a Major general (United States), major general in the United States Army. During World War I, he was a leader of the United States Army Air Service, the progenitor of the United Stat ...

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". ...

, and Austin Warren. His paintings are hanging in institutions across the United States, including

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

, Symphony Hall, The Massachusetts Historical Society, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. His portraits have also been exhibited at the Margaret Brown and Vose Galleries in Boston, at the Corcoran Biennial in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

at various times from 1930 to 1939, the Pennsylvania Academy Exhibition, the 1939

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Later life

Pezzati married Mary E. Palmer of Boston in about 1942.''The Descendants of Frederick Shawhan (1760–1840)'', by Ronald T. Shawhan, page 337.
/ref> They had two children, Pamela born in 1944. and Peter. He was interviewed by the Smithsonian on July 15, 1971 as part of the Archives of American Art's Oral History Program. He also donated some of his personal papers to the Archives of American Art between 1971 and 1983. He was a member of the Dante Society of America. On February 19, 1993 Pezzati died, at the age of ninety, of cerebral vascular disease in

Westwood, Massachusetts Westwood is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,266 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. History Westwood was first settled in 1641 and was part of the town of Dedham, originally called 'West De ...

, where he had retired with his second wife, Dr. Madeleine Field Crawford after having lived in

Needham, Massachusetts Needham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. A suburb of Boston, its population was 32,091 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is home of Olin College. History Early settlement Needham was first settled in 1680 with the purchase of a ...

for over twenty years. His granddaughter Jennifer Raskin is a television producer and filmmaker. Jenny Raskin bio; Internet Movie Database His nieces were

Carla Rotolo Carla Rotolo (March 5, 1941 – August 25, 2014) was an American artist, folk singer and folk music researcher. Early life Rotolo was the first child of Joachim Rotolo and Mary (Pezzati) Rotolo, who were union activists. Mary was a writer and e ...

and her sister Suze.

References

Sources

* ''The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005'', Lonnie Pierson Dunbier, 2005, page 479.
New England Historic Genealogical Society
''Sisto Alfonso Pezzati: His Descendants'', by Eric Bruno Borgman, 1992. * ''Who's Who in American Art'', Jacques Cattell Press, 1986, page 1292. * ''Index of Artists'', Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, 1948, page 811.

External links

Jack R. Dreyfuss photographs of Pietro Pezzati and his work, circa 1971
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Example of a Pezzati portrait "Marion in Blue" from 1933.
Skinner Inc. art auctions
Pezzati paintings at Harvard Art Museums
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pezzati, Pietro 1902 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters American people of Italian descent Boston College High School alumni Artists from Boston People from Needham, Massachusetts American portrait painters 20th-century American male artists