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An American in Paris ... and LondonA selling exhibition of the work of Cyrus Cincinnati Cuneo

(1879 - 1916)

WHISTLER, on seeing CyrusCuneo's work for the first time inthe Master's newly openedParisian art school, told his 20 yearold student: "Draw with yourbrush – endeavour to produce whatyou see before you. You may beshocked by the result".

The young Italian American took theadvice to heart, eschewing academicpainting to become one of the leadingartist illustrators of his generation, risingto a position where, aged just 30, he waschosen by the Illustrated London News torepresent the epoch-making events of theEdwardian era: King Edward VII'sfuneral and the Coronation of George V.

The pictures gathered together in thisbooklet - in Whistler's Parisian atelier andat the Langham Sketching Club in

London – are a testament to theimmediacy and tactile power of Cuneo'son-the-spot sketching and its easy knackof evoking the everyday reality on whichWhistler had advised his young pupil toconcentrate.

Unlike his artist compatriot, John SingerSargent, who had Europe thrust upon himby wealthy parents as a child, the workingclass Cuneo had to discover the continentof his forefathers under his own steam.He was born into a huge, Capra-like,family of Italian American immigrants inthe North Beach area of San Francisco,where his father and mother ran asteamship ticket agency. Cuneo seniorhad little luck in persuading his childrento follow in his footsteps: Cyrus had twobrothers, Rinaldo and Egisto, who

became artists and no less than fourmusical sisters.

Family legend has it that Cyrus decidedearly in life that he wanted to become anartist and study in Paris. He began bysaving money from paper rounds and,despite his diminutive size at the time,graduated to lucrative bouts of prizefighting in his early teens.

Surviving photographs of the youngCyrus show a decidedly un-aesthetic-looking young man withdisproportionately muscular forearms andgreat haymaking fists. Agedjust 16, he became the flyweightchampion of the San Francisco area,raising in the process the funds to financethe long-desired trip to Paris.

Paris

Cuneo enrolled at the Académie Colarossiin Paris in 1896, where he studied for fouryears. The young student continued tobox and to teach boxing to anappreciative Latin Quarter - a fact thatamused and impressed the pugnaciousWhistler. Cuneo also applied and wasaccepted as one of the 40 students in theMaster's brand new academy in thePassage Stanislas. Cyrus later recalledhow Whistler despised conventionalacademic training and sought out students"who were really artistic and in earnest"– most of whom, as it turned out, werewomen: "he never had a more ardent lotof followers, they adored him."

The young Italian American was aninstant hit with Whistler, who appointedhim massier or head student, a role thatinvolved such glamorous tasks as holdinga handkerchief upon which the maestrocould wipe his hands between practicaldemonstrations. The pen and ink study ofattentive female students in the exhibition(see page 7) dates from this period andhad, remarkably, remained in the Cuneofamily from 1898 until recently.

Artist at the Langham Sketching Club

Self Portrait

The other life studies in the exhibition –in graphite and red chalk – also date fromthis period, although only the female lifestudies could be ascribed to the Whistleratelier, as the latter only employedfemale models. The pictures are redolentof George Du Maurier's Trilby: an exotic,bohemian world of picturesque sordidityand seedy glamour, where would-beSarah Bernhardts rubbed shoulders withpenniless students and real-life Svengalis.

Cuneo spent six years in Paris altogether,meeting his wife, the artist Nell Tennison,in the process, before deciding that thebest place for a young artist with aWhistler-inspired talent for recording thelife he saw around him, was London.In the Edwardian era, London was notonly the centre of the political world butalso the indisputable centre of worldpublishing, and it was in illustratedmagazines and books that Cuneo'sfuture lay.

London and the LanghamSketching Club

According to family sources, Cuneoquickly found work and success. Hisinstantly recognisable monochromewatercolours graced many magazines andnovels. The pinnacle of the trade at thetime was the Illustrated London Newsand it was there that the "Englishman bypreference and adoption" (as Cuneodescribed himself) became established asone of the leading illustrators of hisgeneration.

In 1903, Cuneo joined a club that wassynonymous with the demi-monde of theillustrator – the Langham Sketching Club- a curious blend of gentleman's club andbohemian drinking hole. All the greatnames of 19th century illustration hadbeen members at one time or anothersince its inception in 1838: includingCharles Keene, Sir John Tenniel and Fred

Walker. In the early years of the twentiethcentury, the membership was equallyimpressive, including the likes of ArthurRackham and Alfred Munnings. It sayssomething for Cuneo's personality and talent that, at the age of 29, he becamechairman of the club.

The Langham's activities representedsomething of a busman's holiday forprofessional artists, as members wouldget together at 7 o'clock on a Fridayevening to produce a two hour sketch,usually of a life model, after which laymembers and guests would be admittedfor supper, drinks and to view the workthat had been produced.

Unusually, Cuneo took it upon himself torecord these evenings in a series of

delicious oil sketches. These intimateportraits of fellow artists sketching maypossibly have been produced on

"The Langham Sketching Club - a curious blend of gentlemen’s club andbohemian drinking hole"

Flyweight champion of San Francisco

commission, but the medium – oil –would seem to suggest that they were notdone for reproduction in a magazine.Remarkably, the set of portraits wereretained by Cuneo and his descendantsand have remained together as a group.

Not only do the sketches provide afascinating window onto an importantartistic subculture (which still continuestoday) but they also demonstrate theflowering of the nascent talent thatWhistler had observed in his youngstudent. Cuneo had a rare ability to sketchwith a brush, to reproduce withimmediacy and a vivacity, the life he sawbefore him. His oil sketches have thelusciousness of oil paintings but also thefreeness and dash of a pencil sketch.Sadly, the burgeoning of Cuneo's talent

was brought to a bizarre and shudderinghalt at the premature age of 36 by bloodpoisoning – brought on not by an accidentin his beloved boxing ring but by theaccidental prick of a hatpin at a dance.

It was a tragic and absurd end to the lifeof a dynamic personality and a hugelytalented artist, but the Cuneo genes atleast, lived on. His son, Terence, inheritedmuch of his father's (and mother's) abilityand became one of the best-loved realistpainters of the mid-twentieth century –the great railway painter in fact – as well,incidentally, as a pillar of the equallylong-lasting Langham Sketching Club.

Andrew Sim, 2011

All pictures the property of Sim Fine ArtProvenance: Cuneo Estate

With thanks to Carole Cuneo, the granddaughter of Cyrus Cuneo Don Grant, archivist of the London Sketching Club

Clifford Hatts of the Langham Sketching Club

Century Magazine, 1906 Students at Whistler’s atelier ☛