Gianni Cilfone American / Italian (1908 - 1992) St. Michaels's Church, Galena, IL, 1977 oil on board Signed lower left. Titled and dated verso. Biography from R.H. Love Galleries: Little five-year-old Gianni Cilfone came to the United States with his parents from the province of Foggia, in Italy. After initial art training at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, Cilfone took lessons from Hugh Breckenridge, John F. Carlson and several others. Cilfone exhibited Moonrise and Portrait of E. L. Smyth at the Art Institute's 1929 annual. Later he led sketching groups to Brown County, Indiana and was active in the Hoosier Salon (1949-58), in the North Shore Arts Association, in the Chicago Galleries Association (1940-46) and in the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors. Cilfone had his own studio in Nashville, Indiana and was a member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club in New York, where he won prizes. Critics praised Cilfone's views of Gloucester harbors, purple mountain vistas in Vermont, and picturesque Indiana scenes. In the Chicago Tribune (19 February 1950), local critic Eleanor Jewett characterized his landscapes as "emotional in quality and decorative in color." In 1953, Cilfone conducted a class in landscape painting at the Austin, Oak Park and River Forest Art League. 10 1/2"H x 13 3/8"W, 14 1/2"H x 17 1/2"W (frame)