Edward Cucuel 

Biography of Edward Cucuel  ( 1875-1954 )

The son of a German newspaper editor, Edward Cucuel was born in San Francisco in 1875 and attended the local academy of arts from the age of fourteen. Three years later, after briefly working as an illustrator for the newspaper "The Examiner," he traveled to Paris. There, he enrolled at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colarossi, then studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1896, Cucuel returned to the United States, where he worked for a time in New York as a newspaper illustrator. Eager to study the old masters, he soon set off for Europe again, traveling in France and Italy. He settled in Germany in 1899 and worked as an illustrator in Leipzig and Berlin. These were fruitful years during which Cucuel worked for several newspapers in Germany, as well as for other publications throughout Europe, including the Illustrated London News.

Always curious to travel, Cucuel decided in 1904 to go on a world tour. After reporting on the St. Louis World’s Fair, he traveled to Japan, China, Sri Lanka, and the Mediterranean before returning to Paris. After a final trip to San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake, he moved back to Germany. At the age of thirty-one, he decided to dedicate himself to painting.
Cucuel was heavily influenced by the early German Expressionists. He joined the group of artists known as "Die Scholle," dominated by painter Leo Putz, and participated in the exhibitions of the "Secession" in Munich. Under Putz's influence, his style evolved towards Impressionism, which, combined with his love for Expressionism, gave birth to his distinctive imagery. Putz and Cucuel spent five summers by Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria, where they painted nudes "en plein air," which set the tone for his later work. In 1912, Cucuel successfully exhibited some of his works in Paris, one of which, "The Bathtub," was also shown in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, and New York. In 1913, he became a member of the Société nationale des beaux-arts and the Salon d'automne. In 1915, his paintings were exhibited at the San Francisco Exposition.

During World War I, he established himself in Holzhausen, by Lake Ammer. Later, he owned a similar house by Lake Starnberg and studios in Munich. For a painter of young beauties, it was the ideal setting to unite the sensuality and beauty of young women, often accentuated by the waves of the lake and frequently accompanied by boats, flowers, and trees.
In 1921, he participated in a group exhibition at the Howard Young Gallery in New York, and the New York press was very enthusiastic about his paintings. The following year, the Grosvenor Gallery and the Fine Arts Society in London, the Walker Galleries in Liverpool, and the Birkenhead Museum exhibited his works. The painting "Das Picknick" is still part of the collection. Exhibitions in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark confirm his immense popularity.

In the mid-1920s, he returned to New York but came back to Germany every summer. The outbreak of World War II forced him to leave Germany and return permanently to the United States. Cucuel settled in Pasadena, California, where he would remain until his death in 1954.