Untitled (artist's wife caring for their sick son)

Originally born into a wealthy, landowning family in an Albanian village in Southern Italy, Vincent Canadé’s family lost their wealth and property and subsequently immigrated to New York when he was a teenager. His contemporary biographers described Canadé as living in poverty and performing odd jobs to support his wife and children. Around 1919, his drawings attracted the attention of artist Joseph Stella who encouraged him to become an artist. Canadé was self-taught and had his first solo exhibition at the Weyhe Gallery in New York in 1925. By all accounts, he was a temperamental person with a difficult personality. He typically represented self-portraits, landscapes, and scenes of Brooklyn, which critics described using terms such as: brooding, morbid, bitter, and melancholy. This painting of the “Artist’s Wife Caring for Sick Son,” is representative of Canadé’s paintings and provides an intimate look at his family.