Cyrus Cuneo: Artist

Cyrus Cincinato (‘Ciro’) Cuneo was an Italian artist born in San Francisco in 1879, the son of John Cuneo — who had come to America via the Isthmus of Panama in 1852 — and his wife, Boston born Annie (nee Garaboldi). Two of his brothers also became artists.

A young boy approaches Napoleon in this illustration by Cyrus Cuneo

As a boy he became fixed on the idea of becoming a painter and studying in Paris. To achieve this he took on a paper round and performed plays in a stable at the family, charging empty bottles for admission which he later sold. He saved every cent he could and had his first illustrations published in an Italian paper when he was 16. As a teenager he and his brother Rinaldo began entering amateur boxing matches.  By the age of 19, he had become flyweight champion of the San Francisco area and his winnings, along with the earnings of two years drawing sketches for the San Francisco press, helped his achieve his goal.

Arriving in Paris in 1896, he enrolled at the Academie Colarossi under Whistler, by his second year becoming Whistler’s massier, or head student, and was one of forty students Whistler accepted to his new academy in the Passage Stanislas. Cuneo helped pay his way by giving boxing lessons and setting up an afternoon life drawing class with Edith Oenone Somerville.

After six years in Paris, Cuneo returned to America for six months before journeying to London where, in Fulham in 1903, he married Nellie Marion Tenison, whom he had met at art school in Paris.

Cuneo found work with the Illustrated London News and his work illustrating H. Rider Haggard’s stories and numerous other novels on both sides of the Atlantic made his name and work familiar to a large public. Some of his most notable work was a series of double page spreads in the Illustrated London News depicting scenes of his trip through Canada on behalf of the paper and the Canadian Pacific Railroad.

A prolific and hard-working artist, when King Edward died in 1910, Cuneo stayed up for three days and nights producing four double spreads for the Illustrated London News. For his illustrations he usually worked in black & white, using black & white oils, wash and pen, but was also an exceptionally good colour artist in oils and watercolours.

Cuneo transitioned to war artist work with the outbreak of the First World War and his war paintings were widely seen. One piece was auctioned in 1915 and raised enough money to pay for two ambulances, inscribed ‘The Cyrus Cuneo Ambulance’, which were sent to France.

Cuneo, who lived at 215 Uxbridge Road, Middlesex, died on 23 July 1916, aged 37. He had attended a dance some weeks earlier and had been accidentally stabbed with a hatpin, which resulted in blood poisoning. Cuneo was survived by his wife and his nine-year-old son, Terence Cuneo, who continued the family tradition and became also noted painter and illustrator.

Many more illustrations by Cyrus Cuneo can be found at the Look and Learn picture library.