Biographies

Ernest Clifford Peixotto (1869-1940) was an American artist, writer, and illustrator born in San Francisco to a Sephardic Jewish family. As a young man, he studied art at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art with the American painter . Peixotto moved to France in 1888 and studied at the Académie Julian under , , and . While in France, he befriended a group of American impressionists, including American landscape artist . Peixotto remained in France for six years before returning to San Francisco. Upon his return to California, Peixotto was briefly associated with a San Francisco group of bohemian writers and artists who adopted the name a phrase first coined in a review of , a little magazine first published by the group in 1895. Ernest Peixotto Emil Carlsen Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Henri Lucien Doucet Jules Joseph Lefebvre Theodore Robinson Les Jeunes, New York Times The Lark Over the course of his life, Peixotto made a name for himself through his mural paintings. Peixotto’s first large commissioned mural was created for the private library of railroader in 1911. Peixotto occasionally exhibited his paintings in salons, but the majority of his artistic work was in mural form, and most of it for private individuals. Though influenced by Impressionism, Peixotto painted mainly in a realistic mode, and his favored subjects were landscape, architecture, and village scenes. Le Morte d’Arthur, Henry A. Everett Peixotto married the painter in New Orleans in 1897. That same year, he joined the New York City staff of as a commercial illustrator. Peixotto, along with his wife, returned to France on a sketching trip for and decided to remain in Fontainebleau, outside of Paris, where they lived for several years. During his early years with , Peixotto illustrated popular pieces such as and . In addition to his illustrations, Peixotto wrote articles on art and travel for . (in ) describes the influence of Italian style on much of the architecture in California and also examines the culture and customs retained by Italian communities living there. Between 1910 and 1921, he contributed numerous illustrated articles about his personal travels through Peru, Portugal, Mexico, New Orleans, Texas, and the Southwestern United States. Mary Glascock Hutchinson Scribner’s Magazine Scribner’s Scribner’s Theodore Roosevelt’s Cromwell Henry Cabot Lodge’s Story of the Revolution Scribner’s Italy in California 48.1 (July 1910) Scribner’s Peixotto also wrote and illustrated several books documenting his travels throughout Europe and the United States, such as (1906), (1909), and his 1916 book , which is famous for including one of the first written appearances of the ethnic slur “.” In a article on Peixotto from 1907, the author notes that By Italian Seas Through the French Provinces Our Hispanic Southwest spic New York Times [Peixotto’s] knack of description with the pen is happily supported by his dexterity with the pencil. In 1914, at the start of World War I, Peixotto returned to the U.S. He was chosen for the American Expeditionary forces in 1918 and served as a captain in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. As director of the Section of Painting, Peixotto was the eldest of eight official artists attached to the American Expeditionary Force, whose job was to create a visual record of events at the front lines. After the war, Peixotto remained in France as director of the United States Army’s art-training center. He also served as the director of the mural department of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York (1919-1926). In 1921 he was made a Chevalier in the Légion d’honneur, for war work and the promotion of friendship between France and the United States. Peixotto served on a number of art organizations: he was the president of the National Society of Mural Painters (1929–1935), and president of the School Art League of New York (1936–1940). From 1935 until 1940 he served on the Art Commission of New York City and was director of murals for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. —Tara Aveilhe Bibliography . . DIANE Publishing, 1997. Cornebise, Alfred E Soldier-Scholars: Higher Education in the AEF, 1917–1919 . . Dearinger, David Bernard Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design. Hudson Hills, 2004 . . University of Nevada Press, 1998. Egan, Ferol Last Bonanza Kings . March 2, 1907. ERNEST PEIXOTTO: A Writer Who Can Illustrate His Own Books with Pencil and Brush. The New York Times . 5 December 2009. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Ernest Peixotto. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia . . The College of New Jersey, 2002. Cited in “Ernest Peixotto” (Wikipedia). Pearson, Kim SPIC. Rhetoric of Race . . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Shearer, Benjamin F Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans during Wartime Selected Bibliography of Major Works by Ernest Peixotto : 342-50. Along the Mexican Border. 1916-3 (Vol. 59, No. 3) Scribner’s Magazine . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1919. The American Front . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906. By Italian Seas : 75-84. Italy in California. 1910-7 (Vol. 48, No. 1) Scribner’s Magazine : 492-503. The King’s Highway of California: El Camino Real. 1910-10 (Vol. 48, No. 4) Scribner’s Magazine : 699-713. The Land of the Incas. 1913-6 (Vol. 53, No. 6) Scribner’s Magazine : 191-204. Lisbon and Cintra. 1915-8 (Vol. 58, No. 2) Scribner’s Magazine . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916. Our Hispanic Southwest . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910. Romantic California : 362-69. Sketching in the Inferno. 1910-9 (Vol. 48, No. 3) Scribner’s Magazine . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922. Through Spain and Portugal . New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909. Through the French Provinces