This website is maintained by the Gattorno Foundation. Terri Cabral, President, holds the copyright for ALL Gattorno images. Use and reproduction of Gattorno images without permission is illegal. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Permission can be granted to use the images. Please email The Foundation for permission
Dolores / La Criandera Zanana
Oil on jute canvas - 1919 Oil on fiber panel - 1923
Permanent collection of The Lowe Museum, University of Miami, Miami FL
When Gattorno was 15 years old & studying under professor Romañach at the Academy of San Alejandro in Havana, he painted this picture of the wet nurse, Dolores, for which he was awarded a 5 year scholarship to study in Europe. While Romañach's influence is evident, Gattorno demonstrates an exceptionally mature understanding of portraiture with an impressive use of lighting and skin tones to reveal character.
Gattorno made several sojourns to Spain, studying in various parts of the country. He had mixed feelings about Spanish mores and customs however and these are reflected in his work at various times throughout his career. Hemingway said of Gattorno, “…he found Galicia very sad”. There is an air of that sadness reflected in the face of this young boy named Zanana, whom Gattorno painted in the spring of 1923.
Yellow Apples El Camino
Oil on linen canvas mounted on masonite – 1923 Oil pastel on paper laid down on panel - 1926
Gattorno's European training and experience sharpened and developed his natural ability to skillfully address the canvas regardless of subject matter. Arriving on the Continent in 1920, he lived in and traveled throughout Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany until 1927. He developed friendships with and worked in the studios of Felice Carena, Georges Roualt and Jules Pascin. This serene still life is representative of the type of monochrome palettes Gattorno developed during his student years.
This superbly executed, deeply evocative painting with its refined yet simple technique of using light and line to emphasize color and form is considered by those few experts who have studied Gattorno to be one of the finest early examples of his technical and aesthetic brilliance.
El Rio The Artist and his Models
Oil on canvas - 1927 Oil on Linen - 1926
From the Collection of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba From the Collection of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, Cuba
When he returned to Cuba after 7 years on the Continent, the 23 year old Gattorno had developed a personal aesthetic influenced by sources as diverse as Mannerism, Social Realism and the modern primitivism of Gaugin. During the next decade he constantly refined his plastic technique while exploring traditional Cuban themes in a non-traditional manner.
"The Artist and his Models" - This highly stylized painting, with its cool fusion of Art Deco and Mannerism, was one of the canvases shown at the Asociacion de Pintores y Escultores for Gattorno's first solo exhibit following his return to Cuba in 1927. In 1935, it was awarded a purchase prize at the Salon Nacional del Ministerio de Educacion. There are only poor black and white reproductions of the original painting available.
