The Artist

Rico Lebrun

Painter · Sculptor · Figurative Expressionist · Naples 1900 – Malibu 1964

Text for this chapter is pending.

Text for this chapter is pending — see the note below the draft outline about this period.

Text for this chapter is pending.

Draft Outline (pending redistribution into the chapters above)

Demo placeholder. This is the original research outline, still organized by its old chronological blocks rather than the new place-based chapters above (Naples, To America, New York, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Mexico, Yale and Rome, Final Years in Los Angeles). I have not yet split this content into those chapters because two things need your input first: (1) some material here — the Crucifixion Cycle, the Genesis mural, Dante's Inferno — is now covered by specific bodies of work in the new Works tab instead, and I don't want to duplicate or wrongly place it; and (2) I have no verified source connecting Lebrun to a distinct Santa Barbara period — the only Santa Barbara connection in my current citations is the Sullivan Goss Gallery, which represents the Estate commercially today, not a place he lived or worked. Let me know what belongs in that chapter and I'll research and draft it properly, along with the other chapters, once you confirm.

1900–1924

Naples & Early Training

Born in Naples, Italy, on December 10, 1900.¹ After service in the Italian army during the First World War, he studied at the Naples Academy of Fine Arts and trained as a designer at a stained-glass factory.^1,2

1925–1933

New York & Commercial Art

Sent to Springfield, Illinois in 1924 for his employer's American branch, then moved to New York in 1925, building a career as a commercial illustrator for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Fortune, and The New Yorker.¹

1934–1938

Turn to Fine Art

Abandoned commercial work to pursue painting full-time; received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1935 for his first mural project.³

1938–1946

Southern California & Disney

Moved to Southern California in 1938 and taught at the Chouinard Art Institute; worked briefly at Walt Disney Studios, where he contributed figure studies to the animation of Bambi.⁴ Exhibited in “Americans 1942” at MoMA.⁴

1947–1950

The Crucifixion Cycle

As master instructor (later director) of the new Jepson Art Institute in Los Angeles, Lebrun produced more than two hundred drawings and paintings toward a 16-by-26-foot Crucifixion triptych, completed in 1950 and now held by Syracuse University.^1,5

1952–1958

Mexico & the Camps Series

Taught at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, returning periodically over several years.¹ Back in Los Angeles by the mid-1950s, he began a series of paintings and drawings responding to photographs of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.¹

1958–1961

Yale, Rome & Genesis

Visiting professor at Yale in 1958; artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome in 1959.¹ Returned to Southern California to complete Genesis, a mural for Pomona College's Frary Hall, dedicated in 1961.^1,6

1961–1964

Dante's Inferno & Final Years

Produced drawings and lithographs illustrating Dante’s Inferno, including impressions made at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1961–62.⁷ Diagnosed with cancer in 1963, he died at his home in Malibu, California, on May 9, 1964.¹

Sources (demo footnotes)

National Gallery of Art, "Rico Lebrun" artist biography. nga.gov/artists/1474-rico-lebrun
Sullivan Goss Gallery, "Rico Lebrun (1900–1964)," artist page. sullivangoss.com
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows database entry for Federico (Rico) Lebrun, 1935. gf.org/fellows/rico-lebrun
ricolebrun.com, family biographical page. ricolebrun.com
Annex Galleries, "Rico Lebrun Biography." annexgalleries.com
Pomona College Museum of Art, "About Rico Lebrun / Genesis." pomona.edu/museum
UCLA Hammer Museum, Grunwald Center Collection object records, Tamarind Lithography Workshop impressions, 1961–62. hammer.ucla.edu