bunny

This artist is from the Boston area. Iam interested in works that he has done. bunny.

Unregistered

Pietro was my ex-father-in-law. He was an amazing painter. I have a portrait that he painted of my son when he was an infant. I have contact with his children if you are interested in any of his paintings.

Linda Stewart
gormley@bendbroadband.com

Unregistered

I am interested in early paintings by Pietro Pezzati, works from the forties and fifties.

bunny

I knoiw of a Peter Pezzati painting dated 1939. It is called Oxacan Market. My email is mmm.springstead@gmail.com

Unregistered

Apparently, Peter Pezzati used to stay with my inlaws in the York PA area in the 40s. I think he painted in exchange for staying there. As a result, our family has several of his paintings including his painting of my wife's grandparents and father as a young boy.

At some point I contacted his daughter and she was eager to see the paintings but we never got together due to an illness in my family.

Jerry
jerilo@yahoo.com

Unregistered

He was a friend of my mother, particularly back in the 1930s. I'm not sure how they met, but she was an Art History major at Radcliffe and 10 years his younger; later, after graduation, she was also an administrator in the WPA artists' program in the Boston area.

I have a pastel portrait he did of my mother, dated 1932 (she would have been 19). Also, I know he visited her family (my grandparents) in their Summer home in Maine in 1934, because I have 2 small oil paintings (landscapes) from that visit, signed & dated by him. The house, where I live now, still looks pretty much as it does in that picture.

Back in the mid-60s, when I was a student in Boston, I took a fit and just dropped in on him, un-announced, at his studio on the Fenway. We had never met, but he was very gracious, showing me around and discussing his work. At the time, he had a large (as I recall, a nearly full-size standing figure) portrait in the works - some Harvard "grandee", I think. It was still in the "underglaze" stage and he seemed pleased that I knew what that was (my mother's son). It was my sense that he was sort-of the "court painter" for Harvard, although I've since found that he did portraits of many notables, academic and otherwise.

He was the uncle of Suze Rotolo, the girl on the cover of Bob Dylan's "Freewheeling" album (who just died, Feb 24, 2011). Don't take this as gospel, but I think I read somewhere that she (a serious 2nd-generation lefty) had bad relations with her uncle, feeling he was excessively rigid - maybe even fascist (hard to imagine for a painter from the 30s, but who knows).

Peter Fairbank
Bucksport, Maine

Unregistered

He was a friend of my mother, particularly back in the 1930s. I'm not sure how they met, but she was an Art History major at Radcliffe and 10 years his younger; later, after graduation, she was also an administrator in the WPA artists' program in the Boston area.

I have a pastel portrait he did of my mother, dated 1932 (she would have been 19). Also, I know he visited her family (my grandparents) in their Summer home in Maine in 1934, because I have 2 small oil paintings (landscapes) from that visit, signed & dated by him. The house, where I live now, still looks pretty much as it does in that picture.

Back in the mid-60s, when I was a student in Boston, I took a fit and just dropped in on him, un-announced, at his studio on the Fenway. We had never met, but he was very gracious, showing me around and discussing his work. At the time, he had a large (as I recall, a nearly full-size standing figure) portrait in the works - some Harvard "grandee", I think. It was still in the "underglaze" stage and he seemed pleased that I knew what that was (my mother's son). It was my sense that he was sort-of the "court painter" for Harvard, although I've since found that he did portraits of many notables, academic and otherwise.

He was the uncle of Suze Rotolo, the girl on the cover of Bob Dylan's "Freewheeling" album (who just died, Feb 24, 2011). Don't take this as gospel, but I think I read somewhere that she (a serious 2nd-generation lefty) had bad relations with her uncle, feeling he was excessively rigid - maybe even fascist (hard to imagine for a painter from the 30s, but who knows).

Peter Fairbank
Bucksport, Maine

Joseph

I see one of his original works every day.

I work in Boston and see a portrait that he did in the Boston Medical Library of a Harvard Medical School physician.
That portrait got me interested in him.

I am a practicing artist attempting to paint the same style of the Boston School type renderings, and I liked his technique.

I will get the name of the physican/painting for you if you are interested.
His history is on the web and obviously here!.

PS: Thank you all for the excellent additional information.
Good luck in all you do.
- Joe

Eric

Hi, I'm responding to Mr. Fairbank concerning what my cousin wrote about my great uncle Peter in her book. Although, I was of a younger generation, I believe because I lived closer to him for years than Suze that I probably had more interaction with him than she did.

Her assertion in her book summing him up as a lover of Mussolini and Facism is repellent and totally NOT true. In fact, after I started reading rumblings online about what people were saying she said I confirmed that she did make a negative statement about him.

It is a total fabrication. I actually wrote about it in more detail on my blog, but removed it, for now, in deference to her family after she died.

Her attack against Uncle Peter really angered me because it is a total lie. Just because she was a radical Leftist doesn't mean that the older generation are all Facists!

Peter loved Italy, but he also loved Mexico and South America, and Europe. He traveled the world and visted Africa and the former Soviet Union. He could speak and read a half dozen languages. Would read Dante, loved art, history, architechure, opera (especially Caruso) and could discuss countless subjects. What I observed of him was that he wasn't big on politics at all. He naively believe that the "tour guide" in the Soviet Union who was following them all over the place, was just a tour guide.

During World War II he was drafted. He put his talent as a painter to work illustrating manuals and painting posters. He even once spoke on the radio for the war effort. He wasn't a Fascist of any sort.

He could be impatient with music or subjects he wasn't interested in, he even ordered me to trun off some jazz that I had playing when he entered the house one day. But he had a fun wit and was an amazing person to be around. Peter was the closest thing to a genius I have ever encountered. He never spoke badly about anyone in the family and was always quite nice to Suze on occasions that I witnessed. I don't know why she would have written what she did. My mother who knew my uncle even better that I did was furious when I told her what she wrote. I know that some people consider her an iconic figure being Dylan's girl on the album and all, but she was human and had her faults and wasn't entirely honest about things over the years.

I'm not here to cast stones only to defend my uncle, who can no longer defend himself. He was not just a talented artist. He was also kind and generous, he once tried to give me a decorative mask that was hanging in his studio, just because I liked it. He was a real intellectual (not one of these phony intellectuals that are so prevenlent today) his reputation shouldn't be tarnished by the likes of my cousin Suze, he was the better person!

Unregistered

About eight years ago I purchased an oil by Peter of Taxco, MX. It was painted in 1949. I gave it to my wife as a wedding anniversary gift. We love Mexico and, because of his painting, traveled to Taxco a few years later. The town hadn't changed one bit!

Vickie LoPiccolo Jennett

Just wanted you to know that we have a 1946 painting of our grandfather by the artist. You can e-mail for more info at wordsbyic@gmail.com. Best regards,
Vickie

Janehharmon@gmail.com

My sister and I have three pieces of Mr. Pezzati's work...two portraits of my mother and a small graphite of myself, sleeping as a baby. Mr. Pezzati visited our home in Jackson, MS and later our home in Baton Rouge. My parents drove him all over south Louisiana to see the bayous, plantation homes, and lush gardens. We loved to have him visit.

bunny

I was thrilled to read the responses on my question of Peter Pezzati. I did not know or meet him, however my mom aquirred a painting of his ( oxaxcan market ) that she absolutly adored. I recieved it after she died in 2002. If anyone is interested in seeing it contact my email at mmm.springstead@gmail.com and I can forward it . Again thanks to you all. Happy New Year !!!!! bunny.

Unregistered

He was a Mud Angle after the 1966 Flood. This is something that is not yet documented on Wikipedia but has been confirmed by his niece.

John

I had to Google that to understand the previous post. Turns out he was a Mud Angel after flooding in Florence.