Carlo de Fornaro (sometimes spelled Carlo di Fornaro) (1872–1949) was an artist, caricaturist, writer, humorist, and revolutionary.
His work is in the collection of the US National Gallery of Art [1] and Harvard's Fogg Art Museum. [2] His caricatures have been compared to those of Sem, Leonetto Cappiello, [3] and Carlo Pellegrini. [4]
His 1902 book Millionaires of America contains color caricatures of the captains of American industry. [5]
Life
Fornaro was born in Calcutta to "Swiss-Italian" parents. He was raised in Italy and Switzerland, then studied architecture in Zurich and painting at the Royal Academy of Munich. [6] [2] He came to the US as a young man and began his career as a newspaper caricaturist, first in Chicago for the Times-Herald, then in New York for the Herald, Morning Telegraph, World, and Evening Sun. [6]
In 1906, he traveled to Mexico with his friend Benjamin De Casseres. [6] They became involved in radical politics, and joined the opposition to Mexico's president Porfirio Díaz. [5] They joined the staff of the newly-formed newspaper El Diario, which opposed Díaz, with de Fornaro becoming the artistic director of its Sunday edition, El Diario Illustrado. [7] He returned to New York in 1909, and published his Diaz, Czar of Mexico: an arraignment, which led to a trial for criminal libel against a nonresident by the editor of the Mexican newspaper El Imparcial. [8] [9] He was convicted and sentenced to one year in the Blackwell's Island Prison (now Roosevelt Island), where he served 8 months, and upon his release, was fêted by the Vagabonds lunch group of the National Arts Club. [10] He was also invited to a dinner at Joel's Bohemia on October 4, 1910, [10] and in that year drew caricatures for that restaurant's celebrity wall. [11]
He documented his incarceration in the book A modern purgatory and advocated for prison reform. [10] He was a member of the National Arts Club. [9]
He died in 1949 after a year of poor health. [9]
Bibliography
- Carlo de Fornaro, Chicago's anointed: 16 caricatures, 18??
- Carlo de Fornaro (text and illustrations), Gem Legends for Marcus & Co., 11 brochures: [12]
- Krishna's Gift, the legend of the diamond
- Prince Tissa, the legend of the ruby
- Amrita, the legend of the sapphire
- Vanadeva: the legend of the emerald
- Uttara: the legend of the turquoise
- Asneha: the legend of the opal
- Isvara's ring: the legend of the jade
- The necklace of untold sighs the legend of the coral
- The tear of Soma: the legend of the pearl
- The tears of Kusa: the legend of the topaz
- Shiva: "the Destroyer": the legend of the moonstone
- White lotus: the legend of the cat's eye
- Max Cramer de Pourtalès, Carlo de Fornaro, Millionaires of America, New York, 1902 full view
- Carlo de Fornaro, Diaz, Czar of Mexico: an arraignment, by Carlo de Fornaro with an open letter to Theodore Roosevelt, 1909 full view
- Carlo de Fornaro, Mortals and Immortals, 1911 full view
- Carlo de Fornaro, Carranza and Mexico, New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1915 full text
- Carlo de Fornaro, What the Catholic Church has done to Mexico, Latin American News Association, 1916
- Carlo de Fornaro, A Modern Purgatory, New York, 1917 full view
- Paul Eldridge, Carlo de Fornaro (cover design), And the Sphinx Spoke, Boston: The Stratford Company, 1921
- Giacomo Casanova, Carlo de Fornaro (translator), Memoirs of Jacques Casanova, New York: Lieber & Lewis, 1923
- Carlo de Fornaro, John Wenger, New York: Joseph Lawren, 1925
- Carlo de Fornaro (translator), A. Zaidenberg (illustrator), The Arabian Droll Stories, New York: The Lotus Society, 1929
- Carlo de Fornaro, The Chinese Decameron, New York: The Lotus Society, 1929
Notes
- ^ Carlo De Fornaro, National Gallery of Art
- ^ a b "bachman", "The Millionaires of America", The Shelf: Preserving Harvard's Library Collections, July 16, 2015
- ^ Christian Brinton, "Sem, Cappiello, and Fornaro", The Critic 45:545-556 (December 1904)
- ^ "A Book of Caricatures", New York Times 52:16541, January 10, 1903, p. 25
- ^ a b Rebecca Onion, "A Book of Biting Caricatures of the Turn-of-the-Century 1%", Slate July 17, 2015
- ^ a b c Purgatory, p. viii
- ^ Peter Hulme, "Joel’s Revolutionary Table: New York and Mexico City in Turbulent Times", Comparative American Studies An International Journal 15:3-4:117-145 (2017) doi: 10.1080/14775700.2017.1551600
- ^ "Cartoonist Fornaro on Trial for Libel", New York Times 59:18906, Friday, October 29, 1909, p. 7
- ^ a b c "Carlo de Fornaro, a Caricaturist, 77", New York Times 98:33452, August 26, 1949, p. 20.
- ^ a b c "Artists welcome Fornaro from Jail", New York Times 60:19246, October 4, 1910, p. 6
- ^ Jan Whitaker, "Faces on the wall", Restaurant-ing through history, blog, September 11, 2016
- ^ Worldcat