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Born in Malnate, in the Italian Alps, Luigi Lucioni came with his parents to the United States at age ten. His family settled in New Jersey, and he began his career in New York City, receiving recognition as a serious artist early in his career. Lucioni rendered landscapes, portraits and still lifes, and although he chose to depict common objects and scenes, his vivid color, awareness of texture and sensitivity to nuance brought distinction to his subjects. A self-proclaimed "super realist," he paid meticulous attention to details.1 This scrutiny, however, did not detract from the overall composition. He used this precision rather to enliven the subject and to bring harmony to his work.
At age sixteen, Lucioni enrolled in evening classes at the Cooper Union. Four years later, he transferred to the National Academy of Design where he was a student until 1925. While attending classes, he worked for an engraving firm. In 1925 he visited his native Italy, where he spent his time studying works of the great masters of the Renaissance; he had a particular affinity for the work of Piero della Francesca. He was most intrigued, however, by the art of the Italian Primitives. Drawn to their highly finished renderings, he decided to work in a similar style. Unlike many artists who experiment with many pictorial modes, Lucioni was assured of his artistic direction early on in his career, refining and improving his technique as he matured.
Lucioni's initial success came in 1927, when he had his first one-man show, held at the Feragil Gallery in New York. Sales from this exhibition broke the gallery's season record and drew favorable attention from the art world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased one of the paintings on display, an honor which made him the youngest artist represented in the collection at the time. After this triumph he received many commissions for portraits, as well as much public recognition. In 1939 he won the "popular" prize at the Corcoran Gallery, determined by votes of the visitors to the exhibition. He was named painter laureate by the state of Vermont, whose rolling hills reminded him of his native land. He bought a farmhouse in 1939 in Manchester and spent each summer there painting landscapes. In July 1988 Lucioni died in New York City.
Lucioni's work is represented in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence and many other public and private collections.
JMC
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