Di Gesu listed Woman With Bike oil Carmel California

Fine Art : Paintings

 

Di Gesu, Victor (signed l.r.; California: 1914-1988; listed askart), Woman With a Bicycle, oil on canvasboard, c.1970. Size: 14 x 18" plus off white frame; very good condition. Post Impressionist Extensive vita attached.

A painter and a teacher, Victor Di Gesu was well known on the Monterey Peninsula.

Teaching painting classes at the New Monterey Neighborhood Center, Victor was conducting a course as recently as the day before he died, September 28, 1988. His painter wife Janet continues his classes now at the Monterey Neighborhood Center.

Born in Long Meadow, Massachusetts July 2, 1914 of Sicilian-born parents, he went to Pasadena High School and then to college. After graduating, he won two art scholarships, first to Art Center School and then to Chouinard Art Institute, both in Los Angeles. His intention was to become a commercial illustrator. For two years he worked as an animator for the Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles.

In 1947, Victor was drafted into the U.S. Army. He was among the first draft of Americans to be shipped to Europe. Stationed in London during the bombings and later taking part in the invasion of Germany, he saw the worst of World War II.

After the war in Los Angeles, Di Gesu decided to go to the Jepson Art Institute in L.A. on the GI Bill. This time he wanted to become a fine artist, a painter. Victor married Janet de la Roche while there. She was also to become a painter.

The couple then went to Europe staying for four years. Victor studied at the Grand Chaumier and the Andre L'Hote Institute in Paris. Throughout the 1940's he held exhibits in the galleries of Paris, Rome, London and Barcelona. In Spain he sketched directly from the performing Flamenco Artists. Europe became a profound influence for both painters. Victor's style of painting remained in the French tradition.

Di Gesu became a member of the Carmel Art Association not long after moving to the Peninsula nearly 40 years ago.

More than a fine artist and teacher in Monterey, Victor Di Gesu was a profound influence on many of the serious artists and students living on the Peninsula.

Item ID: 01690