"Self Portrait with Magenta Scarf",

which is in the collection of the

Fine Arts Society of Sarasota

on view at the Van Wezel

Performing Arts Hall.

Julio De Diego was born on May 9, 1900 in Madrid, Spain. When he was a boy of fifteen in Madrid, he already knew he wanted to be an artist, but his father, a wholesale and retail merchant, objected. When his father destroyed all his drawings, Julio left the house for good, and true to the romantic pattern of art biographies, became a successful painter.

In 1926 Julio arrived in Chicago where he designed magazine covers, did fashion illustrations and got a commission to decorate two chapels in St. Gregory's Church.

He painted street scenes, landscapes and murals for the WPA. He was a gaunt, intense man, who was at one time married to Gypsy Rose Lee. As an artist, he was far from what is commonly considered to be the mainstream of modern art. He was a traditionalist at heart, but his fame came from his paintings of the Spanish Armada. In his New York studio, de Diego spent his spare time cooking aromatic Spanish dishes and reading works of Spanish philosophers and poets. He smoked cigarettes constantly and dressed flamboyantly, affecting cerise mufflers and jangling bracelets.

Resting Model

SOLD