Umberto Romano was born in 1906 in Bracigliano, Italy. As a child, he immigrated with his parents to the United States, with the family eventually settling in Massachusetts. Early enthusiasms for art led Romano to enroll at New York’s National Academy of Design, and a few years later he was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship. Romano’s travels via the Pulitzer award gave him the chance to study Europe’s great masterpieces and broaden his classical knowledge. Romano’s self-portrait around this time, Psyche and the Sculptor, shows him easing into his artistic identity with confidence.
Early Success and Teaching
By 1928, Romano had had his first solo exhibition at New York’s Rehn Galleries, and in 1933 he started the interesting venture of giving art instruction on a boat in Rocky Neck, Massachusetts. Eventually, he was able to purchase a larger space to open the Romano School of Art in Gloucester, and he also taught at the Worcester Art Museum School in the area and at the New York Academy of Design.
Romano’s teaching style and personality were charismatic and impassioned, and he would go to great lengths to help his students and offer free instruction if they were lacking money. Romano did not let anyone take the easy road in learning, however, insisting that art was a like a foreign language that needed to be studied fully in order to have true fluency and understanding.
WPA and World War II
Romano was also commissioned for a six-panel Works Progress Administration historical mural at the Springfield, Massachusetts Post Office building in 1935. Additionally, he painted the official portrait of Sara Delano Roosevelt, mother of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The vast loss of life and sufferings of World War II affected Romano’s work, with a particular example being a painting entitled Cargo (1942-43). Cargo’s central figure is a Merchant Marine sailor dying on a raft. Merchant Marine cargo ships brought vital supplies to American troops during battle and were often attacked by enemy forces. Despite frequent casualties, Merchant Marines were not regarded as veterans and did not receive military honors or benefits.
Portrait of Lincoln and The Glass Box Series
Though he believed firmly in classical art methods, Romano was not beyond changeability in style or abstraction. His portrait of Abraham Lincoln, part of Romano’s The Great Man Series, shows use of a “dribble technique” and offers a poignant and solemn depiction of the American presidential icon. Through varied blue tones and heavy lines, Romano conveyed Lincoln’s introspective side and the intense issues he faced. Romano’s The Glass Box Series of the 1970s placed representational "fragments" of humanity within glass cases, a concept partially prompted by Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s being tried for World War II atrocities within a bulletproof glass booth.
Legacy
Married for many years to his wife Clorinda, Romano was based in both New York and Massachusetts. Painter, sculptor, educator and even illustrator of a 1946 publication of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Romano’s versatility may have kept from being easily classified, yet he still remains the creator of works imbuing his intention for art: “a sincere personal experience, emotionally felt and intellectually controlled.”
Umberto Romano died in 1982 in New York. His paintings can be found at such institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian and the Cape Ann Historical Museum. His Lincoln portrait is part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library‘s collection and also featured in the Bicentennial Lincoln Portraits calendar of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. In the 21st century, Romano’s son U. Roberto (Robin) Romano carries on his father’s sense of universal compassion as a photographer and documentary filmmaker, much of his work focusing on child labor and exploitation.
Sources
- Man Sings of Man: Umberto Romano, 1906-1982 (2007 Exhibit Catalog, Cape Ann Historical Museum)
- Umberto Romano: Consummate Romantic -- Gloucester Daily Times
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