EDWARD CUCUEL (1879 – 1954) Portrait of the Great Operatic and Concert Singer Renee Thornton

Signed ‘Cucuel’ (upper right) and dated at New York (on the reverse) Oil on canvas 127 x 99 cm Painted in 1930 Provenance: Private Collection, United States; Private Collection, Germany Cucuel, American artist from San Francisco, showed his talent from an early age, attending an academy of arts when he was only fourteen. He then studied in Paris at the Academie Julian and Colarossi, and then at the L’Ecole des Beaux Arts. He worked as illustrator in New York, to then travel in Europe to study the old masters and settled in Munich for a long part of his life, where he joined the artistic group called die Scholle, under the influence of the famous Leo Putz (1869- 1940). His style is similar to that of the French Impressionists, both in colors and themes, and is mostly known for nudes and portraits of women. This painting belongs to the period he spent between the Ammersee and New York.I n 1939, he left Germany for good and passed his late years in Pasadena, California. All lots marked with the symbol are under temporary importation are subject to import tax (5.5%)